Julie Robert, colorful! by Doris Vasiloff, Art review Parcours 2001.

Picasso on his long and beautiful voyage through the world of painting, drawing and sculpture that lasted 90 years." These words' aptly express the fascination held by Julie Roberts, our latest gallery addition, for the late great painter. Julie Robert is a passionate person period.

We could say that she is passionate about painting, forms, colors, and wine... in short, about life in all its splendid exuberance.
When confronted by her paintings such descrip-tions literally leap out at you. What is less obvious is where and how Julie captures all that energy and manages to contain it within the fragile space of a pale canvass. Firstly, as ordained by her training in graphic art, she draws. Next she prepares what she calls a 'layout' in order to stabilize her images. Then, once everything is comfortably installed in its neat little decor, she goes wild! She attacks Public Enemy #1: Still Life. For Julie the words « still» and « life » have absolutely nothing in common. She destroys all trace of immobility using broad-brush strokes and thick superimposed layers of acrylic, in order to bring her subjects back to life. There is no telling when she'll stop, what might happen to rein in her furious folly, bursting with color and movement.

"I spread, I scratch, I scrape. I turn my brush upside down and use the blunt end to scar my surfaces," the artist explains. "I let the paint dry, then add more; it's a continual work in progress."

If Julie Robert is anything it's movement and color! Julie admits never knowing when she'll stop when she's overcome by an energy surge. Her paintings must be sensual. With senses heightened, she insists on having fun, amusing herself like a juggler playing with her subjects, colors, form and movement. She admires Mira and Francis Bacon, not so much for their choice of subject but for their sense of color. This penchant for rawness does not come from her graphic design background but rather from her years at Concordia University, where she obtained a Bachelor Degree in Painting. It was there, in the university art gallery, that she experienced her revelation.

Although Julie's themes are somewhat figurative, they do not hinder the energetic fusion of colors and forms that dance across her canvasses and, at the same time, create a sense of unity. Julie Robert loves good wine, fruit, flowers, fish, the ocean, boats, blue, yellow, red... and more blue. A memory of the sea or a sailor's song she knows too well. Whoever is lucky enough to find the one of the bottles she throws into the surf will understand the essence of her story. Because, as she says with a gentle smile, "Painting is like throwing a bottle into the sea: you never know if the message will get through. In the end it's the public who decides."