Ep 117: Julian Meagher

Watch highlights of this episode on the YouTube channel

The impacts of COVID have challenged the world in a multitude of ways, but for Sydney artist Julian Meagher they appear to have sharpened his focus.

Over the last 14 months, with no other deadline than his upcoming show at Yavuz Gallery, he has taken the opportunity to free himself from the usual demands of an imminent exhibition and created a body of work which has explored exciting new directions.

Jules is well known for his beautiful portraits and still life works – painted in thin layers of translucent oil paint and often mistaken from afar as watercolour – but his stunning large scale landscapes over recent years are now taking centre stage and incorporate elements of abstraction to the point where in some works the representational drops off altogether.

And yet there is a strong link to the mysteries of the natural world in his work. Ideas surrounding the moon and tidal forces, sleep cycles, dreams, heartbeat rhythms and light rays drive his landscape paintings adding to their symbolism and allure.

I caught up with Jules last week at his Sydney studio where he works among other high level creatives. In this podcast episode we talked about how it all started (his first career might surprise you), his ideas, his techniques and the unexpected energy required to create these still works.

He has exhibited in close to 30 solo shows and has been shortlisted in many major art prizes in Australia including the Archibald (four times), Wynne, Doug Moran, Glover and Shirley Hannan.

To hear our conversation press play beneath the above feature photo.

See below for a short video of highlights of this episode from the Talking with Painters YouTube channel.