Julia Maleeva
Julia Maleeva is a Bulgarian-born painter who worked as an architect before turning to art full time. For a long time she held back from painting, after an art school teacher told her she didn't understand color. Eventually, the colors of Provence gave her the confidence to start. Her hand-drawn ink sketches are in the Library of Congress. She paints in oil and cold wax with palette knives and adds something from the place itself, such as ochre from the south of France, seaweed from Liguria or sand from Cornwall. Her studio is in Hampshire. In November she shows new work in Singapore.
Q: You worked as an architect before you painted full time. How did the switch happen?
A: I had a degree in art before entering architecture at university. And I continued to do ink and pastel studies as an escape from the renovation projects and building sites. My hand-drawn ink sketches are in the Library of Congress of the USA. I always wanted to be an artist, but somehow I wasn't sure enough of myself, and then one of my teachers at art school told me I didn't understand colours. So it took me some time to discover what I always really wanted to do, all thanks to the beautiful colours in Provence.
Q: You've said old houses tell you stories, some days sad, some days smiling. What are they telling you?
A: I have had this special relationship with old houses for a very long time. The guardians of the owner's history. They have the scent of a freshly cooked lunch, in winter they have traces of hot summer rays, in autumn they have the forgotten sound of cicadas. A habitat in colours.
Q: You mix Cornish sand and seaweed into the oil and wax. How did you start working that way?
A: I always try to incorporate something that belongs to the place I paint, to give the viewer the sense of being there.
When I started painting villages in Provence I started using the "ocré", ancient raw natural pigment, sourced from the same places. I did that with the famous "Neptune grass", the Ligurian seaweed, and the Cornish sand, etc. It's all about the authentic approach and being able to transport the viewer to the place.
Q: How did you come to work only with palette knives?
A: I am using cold wax to mix with oils and I often add some raw pigment, sand or just scrapings of old paint from my palette. I reuse everything, and in a sense it is a sustainable art process.
Q: What do the hilltop villages of Provence and Liguria give you that you can use in a painting?
A: Lots of sun, distinct caressing light, dancing shadows, vibrant colours of the everyday street market, lots of scent and flavour, the happy sound of the bees or the distant sound of a bell tower… a fairy tale.
Q: Your solo Tales of the Mediterranean ran at Cricket Fine Art this year. What comes after it?
A: My solo at Cricket Fine Art was incredibly successful and I am very grateful to the gallery and all my art collectors. I've already started working on new subjects and I am as always trying to discover new places and looking forward to doing another solo show with this beautiful gallery. I just had a very successful art fair in New York with my other gallery and in November I am showing a small collection of new work in Singapore. Meanwhile, I plan to explore the art scene in the Scandinavian countries as well as Paris and Tokyo.
