Julianna Byrne is a London based artist who practices mainly with inks, pencil and water and creates ethereal paintings presenting a mythical landscape of ferns, flowers, woodland nymphs and hypnotic river bathers. Delicately coloured and detailed, they are spooky yet serene, calling to mind Klimt’s ‘Danae' and Waterhouse’s 'Hylas and the Nymphs’.
Her Seaweed, Sea Coral and Algae series are all original gouache and ink drawings which make reference to traditional botanical engravings or pressed flowers, yet are executed using her own unique and seemingly effortless style. Julianna draws a lot of her inspiration from the depiction of the female form in ancient mythology.
She was part of the ‘Girls Only’ collaborative exhibition in Mumbai in 2016, curated by Antonia Marsh, and had a solo exhibition at Alex Eagle Studio in 2017, and recently was awarded a residency in rural Ireland. Julianna partnered with Farrow & Ball for London Design Festival - creating a live mural in their Chelsea showroom. She will be exhibiting new work at Ennismore Sessions House as part of Partnership Editions' 2020 residency. Julianna also regularly runs life drawing workshops from her West London home - look out for tickets to these on our events page, or sign up to the newsletter to know when they go on sale.
If you'd like to discuss commissioning a bespoke artwork or a mural by Julianna, please get in touch.
"Drawing from a fascination with ethereal landscapes, dreamlike characters and mythology, my work aims to depict the magical nature of a dream or a distant childhood memory” - Julianna Byrne
Drop 2 - Spring / Summer 2020
"During isolation I felt compelled to capture certain snippets of time that one might fail to record in ordinary life, like whiling away the hours on a Sunday afternoon or the small pleasure of pouring yourself a drink at your own kitchen table on a quiet summer evening. I think we’ve all experienced the slowing down of routine and time and I wanted to capture the beauty of it." - Julianna Byrne
