Artist Bio

Julie Jarvis is an ink painter whose work explores stillness, transformation, and the invisible energy that animates all life. She works primarily with black Japanese sumi ink, and on certain paintings she uses natural inks made from local trees and plants—black walnut hulls, acorn caps, buckthorn berries, and goldenrod—allowing the land itself to quietly enter the work.

Her paintings arise from essence rather than representation. Using singular, intuitive brushstrokes, Julie creates spacious compositions with room to breathe, inviting viewers into their own felt experience of the work. Darkness and light, containment and freedom, silence and movement coexist in each piece. The black ink suggests a full spectrum of color and emotion, while the natural inks bring subtle greys, browns, and greens that echo the forest floor and canopy.

Deeply influenced by Zen and Sumi-e traditions, Julie paints in quiet harmony with nature. Her practice is rooted in walking, listening, and sitting among trees—allowing forms to emerge without preconception. Trees, roots, seeds, sheltering forms, and unseen transmissions of energy often appear as echoes rather than images: growth beneath the surface, trust in the unseen, and the courage to emerge.

Several works speak directly to lived moments of listening and presence. Courage of the Heart, from her Loon series, was painted after a nighttime storm while loons called across a dark lake—an expression of trust that a call made into the night will be answered. In Sheltered, a fine central root rises between two grounding strokes, evoking protection, readiness, and emergence into light.

Her brushwork—varying water, pressure, and speed—creates textures that sometimes resemble ancient scripts, embedding a sense of transmission within the ink itself. Viewers often describe sensing energy moving through the paintings, as though something is being quietly offered or received.

Recent commissions have led her to work in scroll formats, now central to her practice. She is increasingly drawn to scale—imagining ink works that unfold across walls or form immersive installations.

Julie’s background spans dance, sculpture, collage, textile art, and theatre, shaped by years of collaboration and community arts practice. Over time, her work has distilled into a practice of simplicity and presence. She works on archival cotton and Japanese washi papers—quiet surfaces that hold breath and time. Her Hanko stamp, based on Japanese Hiragana and meaning silence and inner peace, is placed deliberately, often long after a painting is complete.

Julie Jarvis’s ink paintings are quiet, bold and alive with room to breathe—offering sanctuary, reflection, and a subtle sense of transformation.