I’m Julie Battisti, an artist originally from Australia, now based in Dunedin, New Zealand. I found my love of art at school while seeking refuge amongst the coffee and heaters offered by the art department. I followed my interests at university where I completed a double degree in Visual  Arts/ International Relations at ANU.

For many years I lived and worked in Melbourne balancing a corporate job/teaching and painting at the same time. However at the beginning of 2017 I moved to New Zealand where I have been making art full time ever since.

My work has two significant themes; clouds and flowers. Flowers have played a significant role in my art for many years, they are a way of delving into an unnaturally inflated view of beautiful small things. I am interested in capturing a fleeting moment of the natural world. It definitely started out as a sort of escapism, of trying to paint something with beautiful textures and details, something to delve into and lose myself in. More recently I’ve found myself thinking about the passage of time with my works, trying to freeze a glimpse of life that might otherwise go unnoticed. 

My cloudscapes were born from the move to New Zealand, of missing the landscapes of Australia and yet still loving what I found in New Zealand. The sky and the way it connected places became a comforting link between my old and new homes, representing continuity despite the distance.

Both flowers and clouds are studies of light and texture. The luminosity and light-fastness of oil paints allow me to experiment with compositions of varied depths in different ways. I enjoy creating a sense of depth by building up glazes of blues and greens, and also a sense of immediacy by forcing the foreground forward with detailed layers of opaque white.

I am interested in trying to capture moments of the natural world, to recreate shapes and textures subject to change, subjects that will naturally decay and devolve with time. I am one of those people who does tend to rush things, I talk quickly, I often don’t look where I’m going because I’m in a hurry, but in my studio I am able to be slow and deliberate. In a world where some days it feels everything moves too quickly: flowers wilt, phones ring, clouds disperse; an artwork has the ability to stand still.​​

Beyond my art, I host The Creative Kind podcast, where I explore  creative questions with the help of fellow artists & art professionals who share insights and inspiration with listeners who, like me, are passionate about creativity in all its forms.​​