Julia Dault (born Toronto, Canada, 1977) produces abstract paintings and sculptures. Often her layered paintings use unusual textiles such as vinyl, costume pleather, printed silk, spandex and sequined velveteen as substrates and sources of colour. Using non-traditional tools she has either bought or made herself in the studio, she removes portions of the topmost layer of paint to reveal the colour, texture and patterns of the fabrics and paint beneath. Her mark-making is rendered visible and through careful repetition Dault harnesses this process to create work with an underlying structure that is simultaneously evident and elusive. She said recently that ‘Every painting I make involves a tool and a gesture of removal’. As in printmaking, the tools allow the artist to work in a way that she has described as ‘pressure-sensitive’, and to reveal the force and labour involved in the final piece.

Below another sky was the first collaborative programme developed by the Scottish Print Network, a partnership between Dundee Contemporary Arts, Edinburgh Printmakers, Glasgow Print Studio, Highland Print Studio, Inverness and Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen.

10 artists from Scotland and 10 from Commonwealth countries were invited to undertake research residencies during 2013 and 2014. Artists from Scotland travelled to Antigua, Baffin Bay, Bangladesh, Canada, India, New Zealand and Zambia; artists from Australia, Canada, India and Pakistan were on residency in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.

Each artist worked with one of the five print studios on the development of ambitious and innovative new work in print, taking full advantage of the excellent range of resources, equipment and expertise available through each organisation.

Below another sky takes its name from the poem ‘Travel’, published in 1865 by the Edinburgh-born author Robert Louis Stevenson.

http://belowanothersky.org/