Julie Grist

Painting gives me the time and place to observe things more closely – to become permeable like a sponge. I soak in the person or place or thing for a time and eventually wring it all out on canvas to share with others who can find their own joy or meaning or memory in the work.

I primarily work in oil on paper or canvas and love portraiture. Some times I focus on the face, be it famous or unknown, but other times I paint aspects of a human, and humanity, that invoke a more universal feeling, be it a clench of the hands or the sweep of a bent back.

I also paint the everyday thing – finding common or well-loved objects that may be mundane but have an elegance or humor about them when they are fully studied: the landline telephone, a bowl of sweet potato fries, a burning candle.

I have always been a visual person, loving the contradictions of ugly and beauty, seeking out the perfect light, sketching and doodling, shooting photographs, compiling journals full of words and drawings. Marking my life in a visual format.

I grew up in Wisconsin and have spent my adult life in Asia, New York and California – all places that offer an abundance of visual stimuli that have fed my cravings to create.