Julie Roberts

Well after many, MANY months of being off the blogging radar I finally have some information to share. I have been helping out at a few galleries over the summer to get a better idea of what the real world will be like after art college.

I started helping out at the Talbot Rice a couple of weeks ago. The exhibition for the Art festival is set to be really interesting. I particularly like the work of painter Julie Roberts. Her work for this exhibition is inspired by childhood (hence the title 'Child'), from both a personal and a research point of view. She looks at the life of children, predominantly in the 40s-50s, growing up in a post-war country. Her portraits of children have always been researched and are drawn from photographs rather than models. Her work depicts the loneliness and loss of identity that happened during and after the war. Children were to be 'seen and not heard'. Much of her research was through the archives of Bernardos. Roberts herself spent stages of her youth in and out of care facilities.
I think Roberts style of painting is what interests me the most. It is very controlled and has digital-like qualities. It is almost like something on Photoshop. This contemporary way of drawing is juxtaposition with the time the work is set. The way Roberts depicts skin is that of something fractured, like a memory. In some works this technique is more apparent than in others.
I genuinely think this is a really well put together exhibtion. The work of Craigie Aitchison, the Peter Pan of the Art world, is also on display for the duration of the festival.

Well! I shall post more information about the exhibitions of the other galleries I am helping out soon!