ARTIST BIO

Julie Bowland is a Valdosta, Georgia-based artist who taught art and directed the Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery at Valdosta State University for 20 years before recently retiring. As a landscape painter, she applies oil paint in a thick, painterly impasto, painting directly from the wild landscape in bold, expressive color. She is inspired by the Impressionists who painted in the open air (known as plein air) and the Expressionists who used heightened color to express emotion. Adept at mixed media, sometimes she paints from a canoe or kayak to capture remote, watery places. Formerly a Tallahassee resident, she holds a BFA in Painting from Florida State University and an MFA from Arizona State University.

Bowland's work is included in private, public and corporate collections, including the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach; the City of Tallahassee Permanent Collection; Barnett Bank in Jacksonville; First South Bank in Tallahassee, Valdosta State University, and Florida State College at Jacksonville. Her work was featured in a solo exhibition at the Buchanan Museum of Fine Arts in Buchanan, Michigan, and she recently exhibited at the Kobro Gallery, Strzeminski Academy of Fine Arts, Lodz, Poland. Her work is represented by the Venvi Gallery in Tallahassee, Florida.

In recent years, Bowland has led Plein Air painting workshops to high school students, college students and adult artists.