Julia Skeen

Julia Skeen is a visual artist whose work covers a variety of subject matter in media ranging from oil painting and watercolor to digital animation and computer-generated images. Julia sees her studio processes as unfolding journeys, which reflect her spiritual quest, described by her as a broad-based Christian mysticism. Her meditative life and her art are inextricably linked. So, although she attributes the choice of nature as a starting point in her work to her childhood on a remote farm in Zimbabwe, there is always another layer of meaning in her paintings and drawings. Collaboration with her husband, the poet Chris Mann, includes many illustrated books namely Lifelines and The Horn of Plenty. Large-scale digital art images illustrating various manuscripts of Chris Mann have premiered at the National Arts Festival held annually in Grahamstown, South Africa. These shows include Heartlands, In Praise of the Shades, Lifelines, and Home from Home. Julia was recently made Honorary Artist in Residence at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. George in Grahamstown, South Africa.