Gallery 13a
Julia Rees Designs
Fine Art
Fashion & Textile Design
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2003 - 2017 Solo Exhibitions, Piles Mill Minehead Somerset
2004 Exhibition Tenby Art Gallery
2005 Solo Exhibition Nan ty Coy Gallery Pembrokeshire
2010 - Selected for exhibition Clifton Arts Summer Show Bristol
2012 - 2018 Wheelwright Gallery, Mount Edgecumbe, Cornwall
2018 Solo Exhibition Tregwynt Woolen Mill Pembrokeshire
2019 Solo Exhibition Tregwynt Woolen Mill Pembrokeshire
2020 Opening of new Gallery "Gallery 13a" Friday Street, Minehead
Exhibitions
"Making Your Mark"
New Pop up Exhibition opening
at Gallery 13a
August 2022
Julia Rees BA (Hons)
The understanding of colour, form, texture and composition - the “formal elements” - are essential ingredients for any designers’ education. Our emotions are highly influenced by these elements motivating individual responses to the aesthetic qualities of the marks being made.
As a full time lecturer in Art and Design for thirty years I believe this to be fundamentals for any student’s educational profile, and most importantly they must become their visual vocabulary, which can then be applied to all areas of art and design.
This is strongly reflected in my own career development. Although trained at Cheltenham University in Fashion and Textile Design, my career as a designer has been diverse ranging from freelance textile design and bridal wear design to interior and theatre design.
Now in the process of opening a new Gallery “Gallery 13a” in Friday street Minehead. The Gallery will include work from my Fine Art and textile collections together with work from other artisans and interior products made in Great Britain.
My involvement in the arts has been multi-faceted, having undertaken both set and costume design for film and theatre productions and as artistic director I am able to use actors to create ever changing compositions and patterns.
Inspiration for my two dimensional and three-dimensional art is drawn from continual observation of the diverse patterns and textures which are present in our landscape, architecture, and everyday objects, some of which are more obscure than others.
Continuous development of new textile techniques and production methods, together with my artistic response to the ever-changing environment, opens up a wealth of research opportunities and provides a host of design ideas. These diverse and exciting pathways are created for me to explore using a wide range of mixed media, designs emerge from an intuitive inquiry in response to the engagement with these materials, allowing the original concept to undergo a complete metamorphosis.
Through solo and collaborative exhibitions, website, and galleries my work has reached more people than I ever imagined possible both nationally and internationally.
Julia Rees BA (Hons)
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Making Your Mark
Drawing is taking a line for a walk.
The marks we make are a metaphysical presence of the then and now. Marks convey the journey that, we make a visual evidence of our experiences. We are made aware, we look, we discover and record. The marks we make and the marks we leave behind are a visual history book.
Man has always had the under denying need to make their mark. The necessity to draw, the physical action made for pleasure, adornment and to record, a visual diary of everyday life. Your mark is your own DNA, the visual dialogue as unique as your own hand writing. This visual narrative
conveys emotions through the energy f the drawn line. Scratching, scoring, collage, stich and disintegration all reflect the relentlessness of the elements and their own physical presence.
Coastline
Working across many disciplines and medias the coastline provides a myriad of art and design inspiration.
Colour, textures and form inform the art work. Patterning's made by the sea, ebbing and flowing rivulets constantly changing with each new mark making tide.
The work emulates an emotional response to the shoreline creating a visual dialogue. The narrative conveyed through softly muted imagery, impressionistic and a with metaphysical response to the subject.
Monuments in Time
Sitting within our landscape are an array of manmade monuments. Often beautiful, they offer historic reference, cultural identity, spiritual comfort and can be controversial.
This collection focuses on two areas of interest. Firstly, Standing Stones, these ancient monuments are imposing forms, offering mythical intrigue and wonderment on how they were constructed.
Secondly, built by St David, the Patron Saint of Wales, St David’s Cathedral, a site of pilgrimage. Its dominant physicality a testament to the landscape in which it sits.
As artists we leave our own monuments. Paintings, architecture, sculpture and design become our futures history, the art gallery a shrine of all it contains. They will be the enduring tribute to the past, our heritage.