Julia Van Develder

About

I think, or hope, that we all have moments when we are stunned by the beauty of the natural world—a magnificent old oak presiding over a pasture, or dunes touched by the last light, or a maple in its glorious fall attire, or the play of light and shadow on a path through the woods. When I walk in the woods with my dog, which I try to do every day, after a few moments, I feel my shoulders relax and whatever worries I was carrying simply vanish and I remember what is important to me. The Japanese call it “forest bathing.” That is the feeling I strive to capture in my landscape paintings. I can’t, and don’t want to, compete with Mother Nature. But I hope that looking at one of my paintings will bring viewers back to such a moment in their own lives and they will feel their shoulders drop and worries fade away.