Julie Gayle Balliu is an artist, story-teller through art, and island dweller, with a deep love for texture, memory, and place. Trained as a Graphic Designer at Croydon School of Art & Design in the late 80's/early 90s, Julie followed a career as a freelance graphic artist in London before moving into marketing and advertising. After time in France, Cornwall and Albania she moved to the Kent coast in 2003, working in project coordination, and now lives on the Isle of Wight, off the South Coast with her family, working as an artist and studying for a Fine Art Degree. Julie's main medium is waterolour, but she often explores mixed media and printmaking, curious about how these worlds can meet and evolve. She is especially drawn to architecture - not just the grand or the picturesque, but the forgotten corners too: mossy walls, derelict buildings, shopfronts with peeling paint and stories in the details; exploring urban areas and the countryside, recording memories of wandering through towns and villages, gazing at street life and the tranquillity of nature. "My own inspiration comes from watching the world around me; an inexhaustible supply of cliffs, little fishing boats and their catch of the day, patchwork farmed fields, footpaths etched through fields and hedgerows..gateways into other hidden lives... the weather and seasons, rock pools and beaches, bustling towns, grand houses with Victorian wrought ironwork, rows of terraced cottages with clustered chimney pots and little back yards, shop interiors, inviting interiors of seaside cafes, traditional pubs, retro rides and garish arcade colours... all unique to the places we know and love... both at home and abroad...and combine to make a library of images and experiences I'll never forget."
