Artist Bio
About Julie
Julie Hansen is a Kansas City based artist with 20 years of experience painting professionally. She received a Bachelors of Fine Art, with an emphasis in drawing and painting from the University of Missouri - Columbia. Her work is collected nationally and internationally, with pieces in private, corporate and public collections.
Towards the beginning of her career she fell in love with painting the midwest prairie. Using her soft pastels on handmade paper, she creates what she sees in a poetic manner and contemporary style. Her paintings are less about capturing the realism of the scene and more about romanticizing it. Julie's pastel painting process is uniquely hers.
She takes sticks of pastels and purposely breaks them, allowing them to fall onto the substrate. Using her hands, she spreads while pressing the pastel pieces into the paper, creating movement within the composition. By blending and layering, the final image emerges. The result is almost serendipitous. Each piece is a memoir, with its own nuances that reflect the artist's love of nature.
Julie's family moved to Melbourne, Australia in 2009. The experience of living bayside brought a new element to her studio work. It was hard to not be inspired to paint the landscape there. She joined a plain air painting group and enjoyed discovering areas off the beaten path and along the beach. While working in the studio, boat images began to emerge in her work. This was the birth of her boat series that she has become known for.
The pieces have evolved over the years, some more abstract than others. She gravitates toward vivid colors with bold, outlined shapes, artfully arranged in a decorative manner. Currently she has added an element of drama to the work with the use of gold leaf and is using more neutral palettes as well. The boats are not just an aesthetic, they hold symbolic meaning to the artist. It is a vessel to take you to a place you want to be, a place you've been, something you've discovered or explored that touches you deeply.
With a love for the pure abstract, Julie also creates beautifully joy filled canvases using expressive brush strokes and high key colors. Her non objective works are free from preconceived ideas or a set method of painting. Any and all mediums may be used to create them. She sometimes employs large washes of paint, a drip paint style or a dry brush technique. Mediums often include acrylic, oil, spray paint, and gold leaf. At a large scale, they demand attention and tell their own story.
Through her work, the artist hopes to bring beauty into the world that inspires the viewer.
You can contact Julie for info on any of her work and she welcomes commissions.
Fine Art Sales
I believe art has the power to transform any space, and at J Hansen Art, I specialize in creating pieces that add warmth, elegance, and a personal touch to your environment. I work with interior designers and clients alike, carefully selecting colors, themes, and styles that elevate your space. With a focus on harmony and aesthetic balance, I craft artwork that not only complements but also enhances any room, turning it into a place where art and ambiance come together seamlessly.
