Julie studied fine art at Birmingham School of Art, graduating in 2000, leading her to a short career as a web based graphic designer. However her interest in animals and wildlife lead her to a change in career to work closely with exotic animals as a keeper at Longleat Safari Park. Following this she ended up as Team Leader and over seeing the monkey sections at Monkey World in Dorset. This is where she was able to work closely with many UK pet trade primates who had ended up at the sanctuary needing rehabilitation.   Having started a family Julie took up painting again, combining her love for all animals, both domestic and wild, with her artistic flare. Over the past 9 years Julie has been developing her unique ethereal style as a painter, working in oils to create atmospheric portraits of her subjects. Often inspired by animals in need, Julie portrays her subjects in a light that reflects their vulnerability and fragility, especially with species that are less popular and perhaps miss understood. In turn she hopes to raise awareness and funds for species that are often overlooked.  Julie’s work is now collected world wide and she has been a finalist at David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year 2018, 2019 and 2020. She was overall winner of Artists for Painted Dogs annual exhibition and finalist in 2022 Sketch For Survival.