We were lucky to catch up with Julie Willan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Julie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?
There are many times I look back and wished that I would have attended an art school to study fine art. I lived in a location that really catered to creativity but I just didn’t have the direction or guidance so ,I chose to study graphic arts for two years. After those two years were up, I new that graphic design was not my passion so I enrolled in the Equine management and training program, which was definitely a love of mine. I trained and worked with horses for the next 6 years until I discovered Decorative painting. Decorative painting was an amazing outlet to apply my creative talent in peoples homes by painting murals and trompe L’oeI and various other old world finishes. I certainly don’t go through life regretting and obsessing over the decisions I made. Every choice I made I saw as an opportunity that just lead me to new experiences.
Currently I still own and run a 30 year old decorative arts business but my new direction is to transition into living off my fine art drawings.
There really are no regret to the paths I’ve taken, but I do sit and wonder what my life would be like if I had chosen to go to art school in the 80’s. My life would be so different if I chose a different path, all the people I’ve met and learned from through my journey would not exist. So if I had the chance to change it, I think I would chose to say “no”.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My current passion in art is a technique called “Fumage”, meaning I apply smoke from a candle to a board or paper as my medium. Using tools like kneaded erasers, brushes and exacto knives to remove the smoke. This technique means that I basically draw the highlighted areas of the subject matters.

My entire life has been about being an artist in some form or fashion. I am inspired by so many different techniques and mediums that I see in other artist like, sculpture, painting, drawing, wood working, and iron work, I’ve touched all these kinds of techniques in some sort of way.
But one day I saw someone online, doing a technique called fumage. I thought what an incredible way to apply medium to your surface, using soot from a lit candle. Immediately I started to play with this medium and there were a few times I caught things on fire, nothing serious, more like a slow burn and blistering, but I really liked it!

for me, there was a definite attraction to the way the smoke almost danced on the surface when you were applying it to the board. It leaves such a ethereal feeling, the dark areas have such depth as well as the mid tones and light areas. Its a little different working with soot, because I work backwards removing the dark areas and showing the highlighted. I love that I don’t use conventional tools to create.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding thing about being a creative person is actually seeing an idea come to life. A thought that came from my mind, to paper then actually as a physical object, drawing or painting is amazing to me. They may not always come out like I wanted or expected them to every time, but the process is what really matters, because when its finished it then becomes real. When I do find a specific medium that I truly enjoy, researching and becoming immersed in the subject I fine therapeutic to bring something to life, at least that’s how I like to start a piece. But having a connection to an idea and putting it on paper has to stay with me all during the process of that piece. I actually feel an emotional attachment and a sort of relationship happening. I can also feel it when I lose that connection and its hard to push through sometimes and I feel that it shows in my work when that happens. I’m able to push through most of the time and be happy with the results but not like when I have that connection.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I feel like this is a pivotal moment in my art and in my business. For the past 30 years I have owned and ran a faux finishing business fulltime and created fine art in my spare time on the weekends and evening. Making the transition from Faux finishing to my fine art as a full time business will be challenging. I feel like it’s a break up of sorts or maybe even a death for a time in my life where the business served me well financially but it does not feed my soul. Even though my business is still successful, I am at a point where it is more important to nurture my creative side and let that guide my new business where I have control over what I want to create. I feel I am nearing the transition and am exciting about what this new adventure/business will look like.

Contact Info:

• Website: Juliewillan.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliewillanfineart/
• Facebook: juliewillanfineart
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS_ASYw2QjgDJfMp-3CzIIw