ABOUT THE ARTIST Julie Daniels
“My vision for this body of work was a celebration of the contribution of the combined forces of the Cambridge colleges and their scholars, past and present, to so many fields of human experience, progress and discovery over the past 800 years. I chose the vehicle of the formal celebratory painting to lend the event a necessary dignified grandeur and to share the glory of the University’s treasures with both University members and the wider public.
It has been an extraordinary experience and a privilege to work on this project. The support I received in the initial phases of my fledgling project demonstrated the efficient inner workings of the University, at every level, in preserving the past and forging the future.
Painting allows me to create a parallel reality, a reorganised representation of what I see in order to express an inner vision, by departing from unembellished source images and adding layer upon layer of mood and shadow, borrowing information from the incredible variety in Nature in order to bring my vision to life.”
I work in oils on canvas or panel, and use a painting medium discovered by Jacques Maroger, painter and former curator of the Louvre in the early 20th century, who claimed to have found the secret formulas used by Old Masters such as Titian, Rubens, Van Dyck, Velasquez, and others. Consisting of Black Oil and Mastic Varnish, this medium allows me great versatility in painting. I use the Black Oil to grind my own pigments at the beginning of each working day, giving me greater intensity of colour and better control over the quality of the paints I am using.
Julie Daniels read Modern Languages at Clare College, before studying art in Florence, and then continuing under the guidance of Jorge-Alberto, a Cuban painter resident in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, who introduced her to the Maroger medium and methods. She is currently preparing work for galleries in Stockholm and Munich. She lives with her partner and their two-year-old daughter near Lucca, in Tuscany.
web site: www.juliedaniels.com
e-mail: juliedaniels.art@gmail.com