Julia was born in Bulgaria and after receiving her BA in Fine Arts and MA in Architecture, she went to the US where she completed her Postgraduate specialization in Architectural Heritage in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. This work was commissioned by the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record. Her graphics and sketches can be seen in the US Library of Congress. Julia has been living and working in Bristol, UK for the last 15 years and now focuses completely on painting from her studio. She takes inspiration from her travels around Europe, the colours, light and textures, almost always focusing on old buildings and structures. She explores her subjects in an involved process of painting, drawing and applying wax to the surface. Inspired by the works of Willem De Kooning, Robert Motherwell and Sammy Peters since she has been working in the US, Julia describes her style as abstract expressionism. “My painting is a journey between three seas: the Mediterranean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Black Sea. The sources for my works are coming from my travels around Southern France, Cornwall (UK) and the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. What makes these places special for me is the light, which is very distinctive and specific. These places are around water, and the colours differ because of the magic of light. The attempt to bridge the colours of Provence, Cornwall and Black Sea coast, has been a journey between sea, wind, roads, emotions, ink sketches, canvas, paint, light and a viewer. My art is a deconstruction process of layers of paint waiting to be scraped and then layered back in a different perspective, just to show something more interesting. The way to go backwards is a unique story, like a detective game to find clues from the past.” Working in oils, Julia is fascinated with the interplay of different perspectives and dimensions, and the amalgamation of techniques. Exploring two-dimensional relationship with form, colour and texture has always been her main interest; the challenge to maintain the right balance between graphic lines and colours. “I use cold wax as one of the main ingredients in my paintings, which allows me to create unique textures. Working only with palette knives I often add to the premixed oil/wax substance - old tea leaves or just scraps of old paint from my palette. The whole scraping process involves my imagination to reuse everything back into the painting and be able to create a kind of sustainable art. Small bobbles are one of my signatures, made from scrapings and different mixtures. The wax also helps me establish more translucency to the oil paints. I am ultimately on a journey to create a new fusion of dry point and oil painting, wrapped in cold wax.”Julia has had very successful shows in London, Singapore and New York, and her work frequently sells out. Her work part of private collections in the UK, France, Germany, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, Trinidad and Bulgaria.