Julie Hart

Paintings on display at the Central Library during the month of January, 2012. 

“I paint colorful, representational, oil paintings that capture a moment in mood, light, or composition. My subjects center around landscapes and other discovered items. Wherever I go I am open to possible subject matter for a painting. Oftentimes, this is close to home, in my suburban neighborhood.

I take photos and make mental notes about what I want to paint later. An idea usually starts with something that captures my eye like the interaction of angles and lines or an interesting texture or light quality. I’m not always captured by a beautiful scene, but by bits of that scene: reflections in the water, an interesting window, or an arrangement of rocks.

I usually compose images in my sketchbook after cropping images on the computer. After I decide what size suits the image I want to paint, I make my own custom-sized, wood panels to get the exact proportions I want. I like to apply a base color before painting. I choose this color based on what the painting is and what colors I want peeking through the top layers. Then I apply impasto paint in slightly exaggerated colors.

I like texture in my work and use a palette knife and brush, along with a scraper. The scraper allows me to draw into or remove some of the top layers of paint and expose the under-painting, incorporating sgraffito.My subjects focus on landscapes and still lifes.

I also started painting homeless animal portraits in correlation to my volunteering for an animal rescue group. Within this range of subjects, the same things attract me to an image. Usually the most important is great light, which I inherited from my background in photography. Another important element for me is good composition. The other element I concentrate on is conveying a mood or a personality.”