CONTEMPORARY ART STOCKROOM Julie Davidson

Drawing on the representational styles of both Northern European and Asian painting traditions Julie Davidson’s serene still life paintings fuse the alter-like stillness of western painting with the calligraphic fluidity of Taoist depictions to create hyper-real images that are at once deeply romantic and emotionally reflective. The transience Davidson’s graceful images evoke transforms the act of looking into a meditation on light, form and the fleeting quality of time.

THE ARTIST WITH HER MAJOR COMMISSION FOR CAMBERWELL GRAMMAR 2020

'Still life invites us to meditate on beauty, morality and truth. In my work I took to the techniques of the old masters, using the art of the past to inform the present practice. I also use digital photography, a tool of the present, to arrest time and capture it as a precise moment. I use dramatic light to capture the essence of the moment, whether it be the highlighting of a seemingly insignificant object, or the capture of a fleeting gaze or gesture.’
Julie Davidson

Contemplation. 2019

'Julie Davidson’s still lifes posit the fragility and transience of life, sustaining a broader investigation into temporal reality and spiritual possibility. Throughout her career, the artist has pursued different ways of expressing the beauty and dignity of small things. Her carefully choreographed arrangements evince the profound poetry of simplicity, distilling exoticism from the everyday.'
Excerpt from essay by Elli Walsh, 2019

Quinces and Bamboo (left), Magnolia and Bowls (right), 2019

Davidson has previously been a finalist in the Eutick Still Life Award, the Warwick Regional Gallery Art Prize (runner up), the Blake Prize for Religious Art and the Mandoorla Art Prize (Peoples Choice). She has undertaken numerous distinguished commissions and her work is represented in private and corporate collections both in Australia and overseas.

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