Julian works mainly in oil paint and gouache. He makes small studies on his trips to London, Bath and the West Country with conte pencils. On returning to the studio he will work these drawings up by adding colour and some of these images will go on to form the basis for his larger studio work.
Julian has been painting almost everyday for about thirty years and has developed a very concise style, characterised by his ‘drawing in paint’ approach. This leads to cleanly mixed clear colour, painted with considerable impasto, but separated by scraped back areas. The scraping back allows each mark to ‘stand alone’ and the colour to sing out.
This process of building to great refinement followed by controlled destruction and lightening speed reconstruction is repeated over the life of the painting until a resolution s finally found. Many pictures fall by the way in the process.
The themes of standing & seated figures, boats and still life have been a preoccupation for many years. Each theme is continuously revisited as new knowledge & insight is bought to bear on the subject.
Julian Bailey’s recent work focuses on the contemporary figure, exploring the meeting up of groups of people in bar & cafe society. Painted with characteristically long limbs and angular torsos Julian’s economic use of paint brings out the essential relationships of youthful figures.
This collection of work is also based on the courtyard & loggia settings
at home. These paintings centre on the relationship between handmade pottery, flowers & herbs. As with the figurative painting, colour is the primary concern, but the sculptural qualities of the form are never sacrificed to this end. The aim being to find a matching resolution of form & colour in space.
