Julie Allan

Jules Allan is a Brighton based artist who works mainly in mixed medial on canvas. Jules was born in Glasgow and studied Fine art at Brighton University, graduating in the early 9Os. She later obtained an MA in art psychotherapy and she has practised as an art psychotherapist in the NHS and prison service for over twenty years. Her dual practices, as an artist and psychotherapist, inform one another: both reflect a passion for using art as a way of giving form to what is unformulated, expressing things that may feel impossible to put into words.
Working on canvas, Julie builds up each painting layer by layer, using oil paint, pencil drawing and stitching as well as more industrial materials such as plaster, bitumen and concrete. She doesn’t set out with any fixed idea about what a finished painting will look like. The marks and forms emerge during the process of painting. Each piece has its own mood, energy and atmosphere. By tuning into the feeling of the painting, she lets the painting develop over a period of time.
Her subject matter is often related to mortality, sexuality and the vulnerability of the human body. Although her work has a human presence, the forms she uses are not human forms as such. They relate to the body rather that representing it directly. The forms are fragile or tough, are blurred or have edges, are separate or merged. Each painting establishes its own identity.