Julie Davidson

The act of still life painting is a continual search for beauty in the most ordinary of life’s moments. The spaces within Julie Davidson’s artworks are highly orchestrated - shadows, reflections and the fall of light on meticulously curated objects - each contribute to a quiet solemnity. Her paintings reveal a kind of painterly magic that happens when fruit, flower and vessel, rendered on a two dimensional surface, feel more vivid than reality.

Still life invites us to meditate on beauty, morality and truth. In my work I took to the techniques of the old masters, using the art of the past to inform the present practice. I also use digital photography, a tool of the present, to arrest time and capture it as a precise moment. I use dramatic light to capture the essence of the moment, whether it be the highlighting of a seemingly insignificant object, or the capture of a fleeting gaze or gesture.
Artist Statement - Julie Davidson

'In the work of Julie Davidson, there is an arresting stillness that, antithetically, is also vibrant with life. Each painting is an elegant invitation to meditate on the exquisite qualities of time and its relationship with light. Davidson’s series of paintings in Portrait of Light venture into seemingly uncomplicated yet highly curated worlds of oil on linen. Brittle poppy seed-heads lean out of a jade-green vase, loquats dangle from a pale enamel jug, and peonies in their prime nestle at the edge of a shallow blue bowl. These are not, however, mere arrangements of gorgeousness intended for relaxed visual pleasure. Nature (flora, atmosphere, light) and culture (vessels, fabric, tables) occupy the world in which this transpires. For all their absence of the human figure, they are deeply concerned with how people experience the passage of time.'
Excerpt from catalogue essay by Andrew Brown 2024