Art in the Cafe: Julie Wilkerson

1st March – 30th April

Julie was taught hand stitched needlework as a young girl by her Mother and maternal Grandmother, starting what was to become a lifelong love of needle and thread.

After a career in fashion, Julie gave up her working life to devote her time to being a home maker and mother, still continuing to pursue her passion for all things artistic.

At 50, she attended, The Northern School of Art, where she completed an access course which gained her a place at University to study, Textiles and Surface Design. Deciding not to follow that path she chose to follow a more independent journey, finding and developing her own style of work, using her passions as her inspiration, from tattoo art, to flowers, nature, land and sea.

Julie has exhibited in galleries across the North East, having her first solo exhibition in 2019, Tattoos in Thread, this was followed in 2022 by a second solo exhibition, Floral in WHITE, some pieces of that exhibition being part of this body of work now on display.

Floral in WHITE, is a body of work, each piece being a flower, taken to its simplistic and most stylised shape and form, stitched in bright bold blocks of colour, edged in Black, her inspiration taken from the bold, colourful work of the Pop Art movement.

Julies’ aim is to make her work affordable; the prices do not equate to the many, many hours of hand stitched needlework each piece can take. For her it is not about the number of stitches used, but the design of the pieces as an individual work of art. Each piece when completed is bespoke mounted and framed by skilled framers.