Falkirk artist set for Tayside gallery show

Accomplished Falkirk artist Julie Parker confirms that being creative for a living is a tough gig - “you have to really enjoy it or you’d do something else”.
Falkirk artist Julie Parker.Falkirk artist Julie Parker.
Falkirk artist Julie Parker.

She has long since proved her ability to command attention and has a string of previous exhibitions to her credit, but her debut at Dundee’s Gallery Q is a new career highlight.

Gallery Q in Dundee’s Nethergate is staging two solo exhibitions from Saturday next week, one on each floor - Julie’s work is the upstairs show, while the ground floor space will host work by regular exhibitor Catriona Millar from Glasgow.

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Together the two collections combine to offer visitors a dazzling display of talent from artists pursuing two different but fascinating styles.

René, Phoebe, Jock and Joe (detail).René, Phoebe, Jock and Joe (detail).
René, Phoebe, Jock and Joe (detail).

Julie’s exhibition, entitled Dreams of Mocca Groove, consists of works with an almost collage feel, weaving disparate images into a picture which crystallises into complementary images of a single “story”.

Julie herself says of these new works: “They have been very hard work, and this show represents the culmination - after this it’s a case of taking a bit of a rest, sitting back and preparing for the next thing.”

She is a BA Hons from the world-famous Glasgow School of Art, and like so many artists who have spent their formative years there is dismayed at the double-catastrophe which has ruined it.

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However the experience of these years evidently continues to shine in her work.

'Le Spectacle' (detail).'Le Spectacle' (detail).
'Le Spectacle' (detail).

Julie came to the attention of Dundee gallery owner Lucinda Middleton at the 2018 RSW exhibition in Edinburgh where her work won a prize.

Lucinda said: “As soon as I saw the work I was fascinated by the way Julie paints.

“I wanted to find out more about her so I contacted the RSW to get her email address. This exhibition is the result.”

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Julie works in a range of media including acrylics, oils, charcoal and mixed-media.

Lucinda notes: “Her paintings are colourful and lively with emphasis on subtle physicality of the pictorial surface and expressive use of light and shade.

“Broad themes of transience and dislocation emerge through a playful synthesis of visual components: familiar figurative elements and everyday things are immersed in illogical abstracted spaces”.

Julie’s previous shows include Oleum, Italian Gold at Accademia Italianna, London, Glasgow In Viaggio in Museo Corta Alta, Fossombrone, Italy - and most recently RSW Edinburgh where she received a purchase award for her 2018 painting New Skies which is included in this exhibition.

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Her work is also represented in artuk.org an online catalogue of work in Public collections in the UK. She works part-time as a Lecturer in Creative Industries at Forth Valley College in Falkirk and Stirling.

Julie and Catriona’s exhibitions run until November 23.