The Cityside Gallery at reMax Cityside
350 South Main Street
401.277.9700 | info@remaxcityside.com
www.remaxcityside.com
Realtor consultant, owner, Julie Longtin
Mon-Fri 10am-6pm | By chance on weekends
Evenings during Gallery night and sponsored community events

Wheelchair Accessible

Works by Julie Sturim

ARTIST'S STATEMENT
'My style of work is realistic, but when I paint I try to think abstractly and objectively about what I am about to paint. For example, the objects in a still life are arranged as compositions of lights and darks. I am inspired by the Dutch Masters and their mastery of Chiaroscuro (light and shadow). Likewise, I pare my landscapes down to planes of light and dark values and warm and cool colors, eliminating all extraneous elements that don’t relate to the visual idea of painting.

'I was drawn to pastels because I have always loved to draw and initially thought of them as a sketching medium, but soon found they offered a multitude of possibilities to create finished works of art. I love the immediacy of pastel to render color modulation by layering tone upon tone, and creating texture by layering different colors as well as layering hard and soft pastels. Pastels also have a forgiving quality and I enjoy pushing the medium to new levels in my work.

'I started painting in oil in recent years using a limited palette (the three primaries and white) which in some ways is the antithesis of pastel painting. Where I mix pastels directly to the support surface using layer upon layer and many different colors, with oils I mix the paint on the palette with only these three colors and apply it to the canvas. Yet the finished paintings look surprisingly similar because I work the same principles in both mediums. The possibilities are unlimited in both mediums and I would be hard pressed to favor one over the other.'