Artwork by Julie Mader: Painting on silk

McKean County | Allegheny National Forest & Surrounds landscape of the PA Wilds

Julie Mader most appreciates the effect she can have on others by recording images.

Mader’s bold colors and images often depict nature, people and scenery.

Her home in Smethport, PA, serves as her workshop.

A back room has been converted into Mader’s studio space, filled to the brim with materials, experiments, and pieces in the works.

For larger projects, she moves to the kitchen.

She paints with dyes on silk  – using salts for creating texture, steam sets the dyes. Dyes are painted in a manner similar to painting with watercolors, her silk fabric paintings are works of wearable art.

Her canvas paintings vary from representational works to mixed-media pieces that have layers of collage elements, paints, and washes. Sometimes these two-dimensional works take on a three-dimensional feeling.

Mader also believes in the power to convey messages through her artwork. After completing her work titled “Vietnam: Pieces of the Past,” which was reproduced as prints for a hometown fundraiser, Mader first realized the impact of her own work.

“I went home that day with an awakened understanding that the research, heartfelt emotion and attention to detail that is put into my work can have an impact on total strangers,” she explained.

Julie is a professional level juried artisan member of the Wilds Cooperative of Pennsylvania. She sells her hand-painted silk scarves on the PA Wilds Marketplace here. Learn more about Julie and leave her a review or recommendation on her WCO profile.

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