Julie Wiegand
Artist Profile
Natural Light
Inspired by the world that surrounds her, oil painter and muralist Julie Wiegand reflects nature’s beauty in her art.
BY
Matt Sorrell
PHOTOGRAPHY
Colin Miller/Strauss Peyton

To experience a work by Julie Wiegand is to be engulfed in a world of light. Whether it’s a 100-foot mural in a corporate office space or an intimate landscape study in oil on an antique mantelpiece, Julie’s work revels in the depth and color of the natural world. “I am attracted to color and light – I’m emotionally attached to the nature we live in,” says Julie. She has always created, from childhood on. She married young, had two children and started painting on the walls of her house, finding a “practical” use for her talents. These murals led to outside commissions, and all the while she continued to work on canvas, first in acrylics, then in oils.  A self-described “non-degreed” artist, Julie laughs and says she’s never had a “real” job, but has instead followed her muse.

Julie grew up in the Chesterfield bottoms, instilling in her a great love and appreciation of nature. Her creative inclinations were nurtured by an artistic family: sisters M.C. Wiegand and Jane Wiegand-Sehnert are both painters, working primarily in oil and watercolors respectively, while brother Don Wiegand is a sculptor. Further inspiration has come from artists Joaquin Soroya and Missourian Billy O’Donnell.

She works in the studio from hand-drawn and photo references, but thrives working outside, en plein air. Julie considers herself an “immediate painter,” who works quickly and lets the work emerge organically, with minimal planning. Julie is currently transitioning from her home and studio in Richmond Heights to a new space near the Hermann/New Haven area. She and her husband, Tom Griesedieck, are in the process of rehabbing the Lyon School, a historic German structure from the 1860s, a true work-in-progress. She had her first studio show and sale there in July and has two more scheduled for October and December.

Julie has been accepted into the American Women Artists 2007 National Juried Competition, to be held at the Le KAE Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona in December. She hopes to hold a gallery show of her works in Paris in 2008.