JULIE COOPER
I started my creative life making stained glass windows, having learnt the craft in California in 1978/9. Some years later, frustrated with the limitations of that medium, I returned to studying and graduated from the University of Hertfordshire in 1997 with BA Hons in Fine Art. I have continued to develop my practice since then, working mostly with oil paint on canvas.
The work generally starts from what happens to be going on in my head – whether environmental or political anxieties, music, poetry or memories. Mostly abstract but with the odd nod to figuration – as in Dog, Wolf, Fox inspired by a novel called the Black Fox Running – I start by laying down colour, then mark making, layering, scraping back and drawing into the paint.
The paintings usually develop very slowly over several months, layer upon layer, pushing and pulling until I arrive at a conclusion but very occasionally seem to be fully formed in just a few days.
Exhibitions
A Room of One's Own, group show, The Chapel Gallery, Bromyard, 5-13 April 2025
Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow exhibition, The Globe, Hay-on-Wye, 1 May to 30 June 2025
150 years of the St Albans School of Art, St Albans and Hatfield, 23 May to 21 September 2025
