Julie Vander Meulen is a multimedia artist who grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, in the ’60’s, in a house full of kids. Her first oil painting was in 8th grade and she was hooked on art from then on. She majored in art in college and while she didn’t follow the artist career path, creating art was never far away. Over the years she has painted with many mediums, on a wide variety of surfaces, and even palette knifed in icing on cake.

Her working life has been as varied as the mediums she chooses. She has been in the building business, retail crafts, teaching cake decorating and currently is a 3D model designer. She has taught small classes in the retail environment, and will continue, though outside the retail store. Now that her two children have grown she has more time to spend creating art. Her current favorite mediums are soft pastel, colored pencil, sometimes together, and acrylic paint. She paints realistic images, mostly close up nature and animals, but nothing is off limits.

She gets great support from her husband, Dave, though not so much from the cats…

Artist Statement

My art is the physical result of my view of the world.  I take my camera everywhere I go, because I never know when I will see something that will have to be committed to paper or canvas.  Color and contrast jump out at me; that is what I like to convey in my work. I like to show you the details in a pleasant surrounding.

I don’t limit myself to one medium or subject matter, variety makes me keep an open mind. Each image calls out to a particular medium, whether it’s acrylic on canvas, soft pastels and/or colored pencil on paper, or even pen and ink.  My work has two purposes, one, to give me an outlet for this gift of putting an image down on a two dimensional surface, and two, to bring you pleasure in the viewing. I hope you enjoy my work as much as I like creating it.