Julia Robinson
About the Artist
Julia Robinson is a Colorado-based artist with home ties to New Mexico. Her landscapes are often described as dramatic or romantic, with strong value contrast and an expressive use of color.
She spent much of her twenties focused on watercolor portraiture and illustration before finding a stronger connection to landscape and the plein air process in 2024. Around the same time, she dove into soft pastel, which has since become her primary medium for painting on location. Its immediacy suited the quicker decisions plein air demanded.
Since then, she has thrown herself into the plein air circuit, painting outside as often as she can and training her eye by studying the landscape directly. Her years of portraiture still influence the way she looks for character in a landscape, while painting from life has pushed her to edit more freely and make more deliberate choices about design.
Since receiving Best of Show at the first plein air festival she entered in 2025, her work has continued to receive recognition in plein air events and juried exhibitions.
Artist Statement
Painting outdoors has become an essential part of my practice.
I like to walk until I come upon something undeniable. I’m especially drawn to moments when light changes the character of a place and to the way one element in a landscape can activate another. Those relationships feel richer in person, and paying attention to them has become an important part of how I paint. I look to create similar moments of activation in my work through choices of color and contrast.
Colorado and the American West are the landscapes I return to most. I grew up in a rural mountain village in New Mexico, where the landscape was part of daily life. In 2024, wildfires reshaped my hometown and places I loved. That awareness of beauty and impermanence deepened my appreciation for the landscape and my desire to know it more closely. Painting has become my way of doing that.
Awards & Recognition
Selected Awards
Selected Exhibitions & Events
2026
- 29th Annual National Juried Fine Art Exhibition & Sale Plein Air Artists Colorado
- Victor Celebrates the Arts
- Estes Valley Plein Air Art Center of Estes Park
- Peak Art Adventure Pikes Peak Plein Air Painters
- Georgetown Plein Air Georgetown Trust
- “Purely Pastel” Members Show Pastel Society of Colorado
- Redstone Plein Air Festival Redstone Art Foundation
- Boulder Plein Air Festival Open Studios Boulder County
- St. George Plein Air Festival St. George Plein Air & ART Provides
2025
- Alla Prima Westcliffe Sangres Art Guild
- Victor Celebrates the Arts
- Peak Art Adventure Pikes Peak Plein Air Painters
- Georgetown Plein Air Georgetown Trust