Julia Drake is a full-time, professional artist, previously well-known to many New Zealanders through her vivid, impressionistic watercolour paintings and posters from the early 1990’s; many of which have featured in major hotels, corporate and commercial premises including representation in the Robert McDougall Art Gallery in Christchurch and Te Papa, Wellington.
More recently, Julia has gained popularity, especially with Cantabrians, through her series of realistic, highly-detailed acrylic paintings and fine art giclee prints depicting scenes of past and present Christchurch, many of which bring fond and cherished memories.
Artist Statement: ” In landscape painting, my primary focus and passion is capturing the visual beauty and emotional charge that light imparts to the ocean, lakes, rivers, city and skyline. It is light that creates beautiful reflections and gives water its transparency and colour; light also creates the wonderful glow and drama in our skies, especially during twilight hours. Moments and memories of great beauty are usually fleeting in nature and I seek to capture and hold them in the brushwork of my paintings.”
“I am also passionate and enjoy figurative painting with the challenge of capturing the wonderful array of emotions that we as humans and our closest animal friends display, including a sense of fun and laughter, as portrayed through my anthropomorphic “Julz” series of animal caricatures, which I hope will make people smile and help brighten up the day.”
Artist Backgound: Having a love and passion for painting and drawing as a very young girl, Julia Drake attended two private art schools whilst aged between 10 and 13 years old, and to her delight, entered and won many junior art compettions. Awarded the top prize for art in her senior year at high school, Julia went on to part-time study at the Christchurch Polytechnic in fine arts and graphic design whilst working as a graphic design junior. During her full-time employment of 25 years as a graphic designer and over 20 years as a self-employed artist, Julia developed and retained her painterly skills by teaching art to children and exhibiting at various galleries both here and in Australia. She is now a fully-established, professional artist, living and working in Christchurch, New Zealand.