Artist Statement
My paintings are an attempt to create an unpremeditated dialogue between myself and the blank canvas. I work consciously and subconsciously at creating a visual recording of things that I have experienced in my daily life.
As I paint I blend spontaneous elements of chance with controlled, intentional mark-making. This method, using the concepts developed originally by the early Surrealist Movement in American art, employs automatism to open a dialogue between unconscious impulses and purposeful “left-brain” deliberation. It is this process that informs my work.
I often ponder what an artist’s life and thoughts were when I am viewing art that I enjoy. I read recently that scientists discovered that the grooves in a ceramic pot thrown on a wheel thousands of years ago can record the sounds of life around it. I like this idea that the time we are in is captured in our work, that the marks of an artist’s brush hold some essence of the moment they were made that might otherwise be lost forever.
Perhaps the act of painting preserves and communicates an essence of time and place, creating something for future generations to apprehend, in ways we have not even thought of yet.
Ventura, CA. USA
Julia Pinkham has been working full time as an artist since 1979. In addition to fine art, her artistic career has included a wide range of creative endeavors including 12 years in business creating a line of clothing of her own handpainted fabric designs, designing a line of best selling prints for a textile company in New York and creating cloisonee jewelry designs for Zarah Company of California. She has written and illustrated a series of Nature Encyclopedia coloring books for Stemmer House Publishers and her watercolor paintings of endangered species were published as a line of greeting cards and T-shirts that were sold worldwide. Since January of 2000 she has been a resident artist at Studio Channel Islands Art Center, concentrating on creating fine art.Having lived most of her life by the sea, Julias artwork has been strongly influenced by the natural world and the ocean in particular. Her current abstract surrealist works in mixed media and acrylic on canvas reflect her ongoing interest in natural forms. Her work expresses a spontaneous sense of freedom, energy and movement. … Read More