Julie Poulsen has lived and worked in Cairns, Far North Queensland, for over forty years. The region’s distinctive environments continue to shape her practice: the tropical coastline, particularly Palm Cove, provides inspiration for her figurative paintings, while the dry inland Savannah country informs her landscape work. These contrasting locations are reflected in her colour palette, from the bright, saturated hues of the coast to the earthy tones of the interior.

Born and educated in Brisbane, Poulsen spent parts of her childhood in Lae, Papua New Guinea, the Gold Coast, and the United Kingdom. In 1971, her family relocated to Cooktown, then still very much a frontier town, while she attended boarding school in Brisbane.

In 1977, she enrolled in the Diploma of Creative Arts at the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education in Toowoomba. Reflecting on the period, she recalls a culture that encouraged independence and experimentation. While technical instruction was limited, the experience fostered resilience and a willingness to embrace risk in the studio—qualities that remain central to her practice.

Following graduation, Poulsen settled in Cairns and continued her artistic development through life drawing workshops. Drawing from life became the foundation of both her artistic practice and later teaching career.

In 1984, she travelled through Europe with her husband and young son, spending a year exploring from Greece to Scotland in a converted transit van. Returning to Cairns, she balanced raising a family, working in a picture-framing studio, and maintaining a disciplined studio practice.

From 1992 to 2015, Poulsen taught painting, life drawing and sculpture at TAFE Queensland. Teaching provided a creative community and a valuable complement to her own studio work.

Throughout her career, Poulsen has remained committed to experimentation. While grounded in strong technical skills, she values spontaneity and the unexpected, allowing works to evolve through intuition as much as planning. Writing also plays an important role in her process, helping to clarify ideas and establish directions for investigation.

Her figurative paintings are informed by decades of drawing from life. Working from photographs taken in everyday settings, she develops compositions through drawing before transferring images onto canvas using a process of tracing and imprinting. The resulting paintings emphasise shape, texture and colour over descriptive detail.

Poulsen’s work balances observation with ambiguity. Through simplified forms and layered surfaces, she seeks to create images that invite interpretation rather than explanation, encouraging viewers to bring their own experiences and narratives to the work.