'The process has a meditative quality, and the paintings seem to evolve without my knowing how they arrive. I like the element of surprise that keeps me constantly intrigued'

—Julie Harris, for Australian Abstract by Amber Creswell Bell, Thames and Hudson, 2023

ulie Harris’ work speaks about relationships to the world and the history of painting. Through her studio practice she is equally at home using the medium of paint and the application of gestural, non-objective, style in both paintings and sculpture. Her work embraces unpredictability and erasure as key features, and through the mastery of diverse elements becomes a demonstration of power harnessed to vulnerability.
 
Harris’ practice takes its inspiration from nature, music and memory, and communicates the shifting structure of her experience. The scale of her works translates a relationship to the body, while her choice to blend traditional paints with marble dust and pumice creates a direct link to nature. This produces an inclusive and relatable body of work which also uses glass and steel extending her experimental approach to style and process beyond the painted surface.
 
Harris’ practice as a whole inspires reflection on the limits and possibilities of the material surface in ways that are simultaneously fragile and affirmative. She has created an organic and inclusive body of work and within it found an apt metaphor for communicating the continually changing structure of her experience.