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Painter Julie Giles is exhibiting at The John Russell Contemporary Art Gallery on Wherry Lane, Ipswich from 12 May-7 June 2008.

She paints from nature and has created many paintings from the fields around her home in Monk Soham and Southwold, both in Suffolk. She has also travelled and has been to Italy 20 times.

Gibbous Moon by Julie Giles

Some of her paintings in the exhibition are of the same view but in different seasons and at different times of the day. Having been known to paint as early as 5am, Julie manages to make them all look different.

Julie has a very distinct way of painting. She creates a kind of 'loose' mottled effect.

The colours she uses also express the weather and her feelings, for example red trees to depict a hot day. Julie admits that her paintings have a psychological element.

She describes Morning Sun, Casole d'Elsa: "This shows a person climbing out of a deep gorge. I was grieving at a low point in my life at the time of painting it."

Expressionist painters have a tendency to use their emotions to distort reality. Inspired by expressionist painter Soutine, she said: "But also there's Lowry for his people, Samuel Palmer for his romantic rural images, Gillian Ayres for her use of colour and her use of paint and Turner for light."

She adds a small, almost unseen piece of detail like a cat or dog or even a diver, to a relatively uncomplicated composition. This almost hidden detail isn't seen from a distance but adds interest when close up.

The Dive by Julie Giles

So they look good from both perspectives. I went around the gallery looking closely at each painting to see what else she had hidden!

Julie likes to paint on Khadi paper, which is a kind of cotton rag made in India. This paper has a raised surface, which gives her paintings the texture of grass or waves on the sea.

Khadi paper isn't cut into sharp edges. The corners are rounded giving it a unique shape. Julie said: "The paint and the paper become a whole object, merging into one."

Looking at a Giles painting is similar to looking through a window. She said: "They are fantasy and my aim is to uplift the viewer."

Most of Julie's work illustrates the beauty of nature and out of the 31 paintings on show in the exhibition only one shows the unattractive but sadly sometimes realistic scene of litter in a river.