Julia Merkel
Painter, Julia Merkel, is the Preservation Officer for the JMU libraries and former
Curator of Collections for the James Madison University
Foundation’s Fine Art Collection. She holds an MFA in Painting from James Madison
University, is a graduate cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a BFA
in Sculpture and Art History, and has a Certification in Collections Management
from the University of Missouri, Kansas City.
Merkel lives with her husband and two very young children in Keezletown, Virginia.
She is represented by galleries in a tri-state region: Art International in Asheville,
North Carolina; Frame Gallery in Staunton, Gallery of Mountain Secrets in Monterey and
Warm Springs Gallery in Virginia; and Ann Taylor Gallery in Charleston, West Virginia.
Her career has been punctuated by the Emil T. Jacques Silver Medal of Fine Art conveyed
by the University of Notre Dame, a full fellowship to the Master of Fine Art program at
James Madison University and inclusion in juried shows at the Kentucky Derby Museum and
the International Museum of the Horse in Lexington, Kentucky.
The Creative Process
Julia Merkel comes by her interest in equine art quite honestly, as the trait can be
traced back through many generations in her family. In fact, her most prized possession
is her great grandmother’s own painting palette.
Of her own work she says:
"Although drawing is fundamental to my way of working (expressive equine paintings),
it often takes a back seat to more formal and finished works. My standard drawing lines
are typically buried under layers of paint; rather than exhuming them, they are represented
here as finished works. Unbound from the constraints of traditional frames and support,
they take on a life of their own."
Though line is inherent in Julia’s expressive equine paintings, it is subordinate
to the dominant elements of color and form. These drawings allow line to become
superlative. Active, searching lines imbue their subjects with physicality. Line
is a direct connection to the artist’s eye.
