Julie Chapman grew up in central Ohio on a small family farm where she spent summers baling hay, working in the garden, climbing trees, hanging laundry outside and catching butterflies. She caught tadpoles in the pond, reared moths and butterflies to adulthood from larvae or egg, and was fascinated by every form of life on the farm - pasture, trees, and hayfields. Her childhood instilled in her a deep love for critters – winged, scaled, small, large, anything. What Julie wanted most was a horse which probably explains why she obsessively drew them. She started drawing as soon as she learnt how to hold a pencil, and has never stopped. Julie investigated all the graphic media throughout her childhood, and she discovered color media in her early teen years -in adulthood she also tried oils and it was love at first try. She majored in computer engineering in college, and after graduation she worked for about 20 years in marketing and R&D at HP – so her art education has developed from bookwork to observation.
More than 25 years ago, she began exploring Canadian and American wilderness areas, and began painting and drawing wildlife. In 2002 Julie won the Arts for the Parks Grand Prize, which made her to move to Montana from California and inspired her to become a full-time artist. The artist spends a lot of time every year pursuing of reference materials; and she says she’s very much privileged to live close to wildlife and splendid wilderness. Her work has evolved to something with a more contemporary edge – sizzling streaks of color, abstract backgrounds, and big loose knifework and brushwork. Her influencers include Carl Rungius, Bob Kuhn, Wayne Thiebaud and Richard Schmid.
