Today we’d like to introduce you to Julia Buckwalter.
Hi Julia, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I’m an artist who was born and raised in two different deserts… Took my first breath in Cairo, Egypt in 1984, and then spent my early years in Orem growing up below the Wasatch Mtns., the shape of Mt Timpanogas sleeping lady my first memorable love of a formation against the sky. My family traveled often throughout the Southwest, savoring our road trips to red and golden places and camping under the stars. I spent several years on both coasts and acquired a degree in Visual Arts for Painting at Pennsylvania State University. After college, I returned to the West and Moab to establish my craft, which focuses on the region’s landscape and what I call “skyscapes”. Working primarily with oil on canvas in the studio, my painterly style draws from years of emotion and memory, my large canvasses (generally 36×48″) carrying the sensation of being “windows” in time. Whether watching storms roll in across the horizon or spending extended time throughout my life at Georgia O’Keeffe’s Ghost Ranch, the desert has been a source of endless artistic inspiration.
Ever-changing shapes and colors of clouds, rich variations of hues found in “red” rock, winding rivers, mountains, and the emotionality of place all find their way into my studio. Along with O’Keeffe, I’m heavily influenced by the European Post-Impressionists and American Western masters. Visits to the Springville Art Museum when I was young were a steady beacon of the arts as a possible profession, and a few family friends working as art faculty in various universities made this even more visible. A favorite place in Provo is the art museum at B.Y.U., which has an incredible Maynard Dixon collection – I named one of my cloud paintings in honor of the artist!
I spent April – October of 2021 as Artist in the Parks for the Moab region, painting in Arches & Canyonlands National Parks and Natural Bridges and Hovenweep National Monuments. Most recently (June – Dec 2022), I exhibited a solo show of 17 large paintings in oil at the John Wesley Powell River History Museum in Green River. I can be found today working in my studio or at the local bookstore, enjoying breaks to read, bike, and run in this beautiful landscape!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’ve had my share of trials and tribulations. There were oh so many moments of not being taken seriously. For being too young, too female, and too blonde. I once had a solo show where I was asked by a group of established older male artists for my contact info – only to invite me to model nude for them! Other friends in art school were objectified and even assaulted by male professors and colleagues. Being a young woman artist I hope is easier since #metoo than I feel it was 20 years ago. Early on at my shows, some people would express shock that I was the artist, and in exasperation, I finally asked an older cousin I respected how I might be taken more seriously. His advice? Start dressing like an adult!
Eventually, I did, and it’s very good advice to young artists looking for respect and trust from patrons. I also had a show where I allowed a director at a high-end gallery to dictate my sales – she underpriced all of my work and nothing sold. I was deeply depressed for a time and hurried to sell everything off myself at a now deeply regretful loss. There are a number of paintings from my early years that have been inquired about since for 10x the selling price. Learning to value yourself, and trusting your instincts (along with good direction from those in the industry you trust) is of utmost importance. I have learned to say no to a few friends and acquaintances who’d like me to dramatically lower the price.
The (now) obvious response I utilize is to offer smaller work, and reproductions such as canvas prints, allowing a wide price range for any buyer. I love that children can afford to buy my postcards – as a child who bought them myself, every museum visit! Lastly, the most important book I’ve ever read on the psychology of the creative mind is Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. I highly recommend it to anyone stuck in a rut!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I paint with oil, enjoying the slight give of stretched canvas, and the slow process of oil absorption. I’m known for my big landscapes and skies but mostly for my cloud paintings. I painted my first giant cloudscape in 2013, “Evening Clouds Over Moab”. Georgia O’Keeffe and Maynard Dixon’s influence is impossible to not include – I feel they are just as cloud-0bsessed as me. One of my proudest moments was hearing from both of my grandmothers years ago that they had never really noticed clouds that much, but now they really paid attention to them because of my paintings. For me, painting is so emotional, and landscapes, and skies are emotional.
I’ve found that people respond to my work the same way, and buy paintings because they stir up passionate feelings for them. I know a painting is successful when it gives me a weightless feeling in my chest. I’ve certainly ruined paintings by working too much on them and thinking too much. The best works I’ve created, people’s favorite paintings, have sprung from truly focused moments of zen and feeling in the studio. In terms of what has set me apart from other local artists so far, I would say the focus on clouds and obsession with 36×48″ canvasses! The first canvas I ever built was that size, and I just find it to be a perfect shape on an empty wall. I like the “dance” of painting large scale, moving around the studio, and big dramatic brushstrokes!
What are your plans for the future?
My plans for the future? I’d like to feel that when I’m gone, people will say I “made the world a more beautiful place”. That quote comes from my favorite children’s book of all time, “Miss Rumphius: The Lupine Lady”, written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney. In the book, a young girl paints clouds in her grandfather’s paintings and he insists that making the world more beautiful is the most important thing she should do in life. She travels the world, grows older, and as an old woman spreads lupine seeds all over the Maine coast.
It’s based on a true story and had a deep effect on little artist me. I’d like to visit all of the landscapes I’ve read about in books and dreamed of seeing, and painting as much as possible. I’d like my paintings to bring joy, beauty, and happiness to as many people as possible. And I hope to write and illustrate at least one children’s book someday!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.juliabuckwalter.com
- Instagram: @reddirtpainter
