Notton Art Studio
About Julian Notton
Most of my life has been spent near the coast or lakes, and the resulting love of water sports and ocean vistas influences most of my imagery. After a technical career, I came to the island of Maui, Hawaii, where the beaches and water are a major focus. This beautiful island has been the perfect place to develop art that has a fusion of island themes and tropical color.
I have always enjoyed painting, and back in the 1990's I pursued a course in Japanese brush painting. That course reinforced the concept of "less can be more", where the use of negative space directs the eye. Later, my interests moved toward creating texture and depth, resulting in learning palette knife techniques, and the contrasts of impasto against smooth paint layers adds tactile interest that is applied to most of my works.
Several years ago, my art journey and mindset escaped the bounds of rectangular canvases..."Painting Outside the Box". Panel provides the flexibility to have an envelope that can compliment, crop or even be part of the image. In addition, shaped panel is a perfect partner for curvilinear and geometric works. This approach requires pre-planning of panel shape and image, but later during art execution colors and textures are easily changed.
The enjoyment of seeing turtles on Maui led me to paint a contemporary turtle shell image on an elliptical support. To explore variations on this theme resulted in learning vector graphic design, designing a turtle shell lattice, and applying different color themes and gradations.... examples can be found in the Gallery.
The ongoing search for unique creative concepts led to a Polynesian Canoe series. The mono and twin curved wood panel sails form the support for the image, while an exotic wood hull integrates the 3-D result.