Jules Allan

Jules Allan studied fine art at Brighton University, graduating in the 90’s. Her degree show won the Platform Graduate Art Award- Painting 1st Prize.

 Jules prefers to work on a large scale and her mixed media paintings are often highly textured. Her subject matter is often related to mortality, sexuality and the vulnerability of the human body within its environment. Although her  work has a human presence the forms used are not human forms as such. They relate to the body rather that representing it directly. The forms are fragile or tough, are blurred or have edges, are separate or merged, each painting establishes its own identity.

The paintings are created in a constant state of revision, by layering, scraping and dissolving the paint Jules  hopes to distil the essence of a state of mind.  The process is important, with the materials being subject to actions like being torn, stitched, layered and wrinkled. The surface of the paintings reveals the process of layering involved in making them, concrete, plaster, raw canvas and delicate stitching combine with monochromatic areas of black or grey as well as lighter tones.  Each piece has its own mood, energy and atmosphere, Jules tries tune in to the feeling of the painting and let that feeling develop over a period of time.

Jules later obtained an MA in art psychotherapy and has worked in the NHS and prison service for over twenty years. Her dual practices as an artist and psychotherapist inform one and other, both reflect a passion for using art as a way of giving form to what is unformulated: expressing things that can feel too hard to put in to words.