Julia London, United Kingdom

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I am a painter living and working in London. Working primarily in oils and mixed media to create works that move between abstraction, figuration, and imagined space. My practice is rooted in an intuitive, process-led approach in which imagery emerges through slow layering, erasure, and reconstruction.

My practice centres on painting as an intuitive, process-led activity where imagery is discovered rather than planned. Working primarily with oil paint and collage, I create paintings that move between abstraction, figuration, and imagined space. The work develops through slow layering, adding to and subtracting from the surface, continually reconstructing, allowing forms to emerge, dissolve, and reconfigure over time. I begin each painting without a fixed image in mind, responding instead to gesture, rhythm, and colour. Marks are laid down freely and then negotiated gradually through scraping back, overpainting, and sometimes the introduction of collage elements. This process creates surfaces that feel both constructed and unstable, where fragments of bodies, landscapes, and architectural spaces appear momentarily before slipping back into abstraction. Gesture and materiality are central to my work. The physical act of applying paint — building, removing, and reworking the surface — drives the development of each composition. Collage functions as both a starting point and anchor, introducing another visual language that interrupts the painted field and creates a sense of fractured space. These fragments suggest memory, place, or narrative without describing them directly. Colour plays an important role in shaping atmosphere and emotional tone. Rather than presenting fixed narratives, my paintings remain open-ended. They invite viewers to slow down and bring their own associations and experiences into the encounter. Meaning is not prescribed but emerges through looking, allowing each work to function as a space for projection, reflection, and imaginative engagement.