Valdosta State University’s Odum Library invites students, faculty, staff, alumni, retirees, and the general public to view Earthscapes: Paintings by Julie Bowland in the first floor rotating gallery. The exhibition will run through February, possibly early March.
 
Earthscapes: Paintings by Julie Bowland features 18 works of art on canvas — two encaustic, one mixed media, and 17 oil — and invites viewers to travel vicariously through the cliffs of California, the swamps of Georgia, and the tropical islands of Hawaii.

“As a landscape painter, I work directly from nature with oil paint applied in a thick, vigorous impasto,” Bowland shared in her artist statement. “Color is everything to me. It expresses intensity of emotion as it defines space and form. While color and form may be freely interpreted, it remains important to me to work from nature.

“I appreciate the directness and spontaneity of the dynamic, always changing conditions of the outdoors while I paint and draw. They create a joy and a challenge while I work, and I often have no idea how a painting will turn out. That spontaneity is the fun part.

“The French called painting directly from nature en plein air, or in open air. It is exciting and inspiring to slather paint while engulfed in a wild swamp or forest, to dance with the elements of wind, wildlife, shifting light, and all the other uncontrollable aspects of nature. This joy and excitement drives me to make art. I think of my style of art as plein air expressionism.”

Bowland is director of VSU’s Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery and a professor in VSU’s Department of Art and Design. She has taught classes in painting, two-dimensional design, arts perspectives, and senior exhibition since 2002.