These small life studies by award-winning Cairns artist Julie Poulsen are full of colour, energy, and bold, quirky character. With her distinctive abstract style, Julie captures everyday scenes—from sun-drenched beaches to bustling cafés—with playful touches, often including animals. While many serve as studies for her larger exhibition works, each painting stands on its own as a vibrant, funky snapshot of life through her eyes.

"DIGGER DOG"

Original artwork on canvas.

cm x  cm

Stretched and ready to hang.

JULIE POULSEN

Born and later educated in Brisbane from mid primary school, Julie spent a year with her family in Cooktown in 1977 before moving to Toowoomba to embark on a Diploma of Creative Arts.  At the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education, in an era exemplified by non-directed arts study and limited formal tuition, Julie formulated a mind set of investigation which would characterise her future art practice.  Tapping in to the sensitivities of printmaking, the gutsiness of oils, the pliability of soft sculpture and the spontaneous bliss of drawing, each altered direction reflected the changing and intersecting pathways in Julie’s life.

In the late eighties Julie manoeuvred back into painting, juggling work and motherhood as women typically do – with determination and efficiency.  These early works mirror this energy, painted with a fresh, raw fervour, with multiple layers of child-like images reflecting her children’s drawings.

Painting remained the focus until 2002 when the nature of her art practice shifted.  The new works became light and open, a combination of painting, drawing, printmaking and stitched assemblage.  The change was a return to the source, an extension of works started at art college.  In 2005, an exhibition of new works at Cairns Art Gallery was to clarify and establish this new direction for Julie in a dramatic way.  Décor Sermon was 50 metres of artwork 148cms high covering the walls of the Loft Art Space.  It was a raucous combination of materials – stitched panels, found objects and thought-provoking imagery – presented as a playful reinvention of the puffed up notion of the perfect interior décor.

Julie is currently a member of the art collective Sixfold Project – made up of artists Raewyn Biggs, Barbara Dover, Louisa Ennis-Thomas, Rose Rigley and Jennifer Valmadre. All of these contemporary & experimental artists are currently or formerly Cairns residents who met through the local TAFE college, and local arts scene. The Cairns campus of TAFE is known for it's high calibre Arts Educators, and for producing many talented & successful artists. All of these female practitioners fall into both or either of these categories.

With Julie’s touch, elements of the everyday take on a life of their own as unique works of art, testaments to her ongoing quest for new visual narratives and her delightfully unpredictable style.