ST. PAUL – The walls of the room are adorned with a gallery of oil paintings decades old. Many of them depict nature and its beauty.
Among them is a landscape of snow sprawled across the canvas. At the forefront are spruce trees, their branches laden with the weight of fallen snow. In the distance mountains are portrayed in shades of muted whites and grays. The snowy painting is one of Julie Joly’s first paintings.
Joly, who has lived in St. Paul since she was a teenager, was in her 30s when she painted the snowy landscape. For about a decade after that, she continued painting, until she stopped for an extended period of time.
It would be two decades later when she picked up the paintbrush again in 2020 – when the pandemic began. This time, she started painting with acrylic, since oil painting posed a risk to her health, due to the small space she worked in.
“I like things bright and colourful, and how you see them as they are,” says Joly, giving nature as an example. She paints things such as the sky, trees, flowers, and buildings such as houses or barns. Even roads, portraying the idea of driving down the road and watching the canopy of trees in the distance, are captured on canvas.
Despite her love of art, “I don’t call myself an artist – I call myself a painter,” she says. “I don’t really think I qualify as an artist. I don’t go out and invent something. I paint from something.”
She painted for herself, for her grandchildren, for friends, and for her family. She wasn’t keen on selling her paintings, admitting, “I don’t really know what other people would think of my art.”
It’s only in recent years that she decided to attempt selling her work, thanks to the encouragement of others. It’s expensive to paint, she says, but Joly is also experiencing a lack of space to keep her work.
While she won’t be selling her oil paintings, the acrylic paintings will be up for sale. Joly is setting up an art sale on July 1, beginning from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and it will run for a few days.
She admits to feeling anxious and scared as the date nears, but she is also excited to see how it will go. “As I’m setting up, I tell myself, do it right the first time because you’re not going to do it again,” says Joly, with a laugh.
Aside from hoping to sell some of her work, she also wants to simply showcase her art to more people.
“I don't expect people to have to feel that they have to buy my art,” says Joly. “I just want them to come and see it... and hopefully, they like it.”
She also says that the first 50 people who show up will receive a small gift.
The sale will take place at 5701 43rd Ave., in St. Paul.
