Julia O'Reilly

Award-winning color media artist.

"The song of the land is in my bones and in my heart. It seeps into everything. There is magic in that, gentle and wild. And it's that unseen force that I seek to find in the paint. It is the job of the artist to make the unseen visible, to render in some way that which asks who are we, why are we here, what is important."

Julia O’Reilly’s sunsets are seen through an Oregon of stillness, brilliant with a hyper color other artists only dream of. Obtaining it is not easy.

~ Renardo Barden, 350 Words, Portland, OR

Join Me For An Oregon Coast Painters Retreat and Workshop

This four day gathering is both a plein air painting and art-journal workshop on the Oregon coast. Painters and non-artists welcome!

Posted 03/01/2024


Vancouver Wine and Jazz Festival

Art booth at the Vancouver Wine & Jazz Festival, August 25-27

Posted 08/12/2023


In Search of Wonder - Painting At The Ocean

from plein air to abstraction

Posted 05/12/2023


Painting Workshop-Retreat on the Oregon Coast, May 2023

Four day retreat and gouache painting workshop on the Oregon coast.

Posted 04/25/2023


How can we explore color’s amazing power for expressing emotions in art?

How we can use color for expression

Posted 04/11/2023


What can we say about a painting?

On the essential elements of painting, and how we can talk about them.

Posted 03/15/2023


A Handbook for Gouache Paints

My new eBook is out! It's a guidebook for gouache paints, where and what to buy and how to use them.

Posted 03/05/2023


Why Paint From Nature?

When the weather constrains my plein air painting, I head indoors. By early spring, I'm longing to be back out in nature.

Posted 01/11/2023


Oregon Coast, Plein Air Painting, Sept 29 - Oct 2, 2022

This mid-section of the Oregon Coast has wonderful access to tidepools, coastal forest hikes, beachcombing, and much more. Your room is steps away from the famous 804 Trail, with wonderful step-out areas and views for setting up an easel.

Posted 07/01/2022


Oregon Coast, Plein Air Painting, May 2023

Come paint your heart out in May 2023. This mid-section of the Oregon Coast has wonderful access to tidepools, coastal forest hikes, beachcombing, and much more. Your room is steps away from the famous 804 Trail, with wonderful step-out areas and views for setting up an easel.

Posted 07/01/2022


Stepping Back

We learn to step back in our art practice as a tool of habit, to gain a different view.

Posted 06/21/2022


Conversations Within, "The Women Artists of Monhegan Island"

This 2007 film documentary by Michael Boucher continues to ask "where are the women?" in the history of painting, the history of art.

Posted 06/13/2022


Plein Air Painting - Lower Crooked River caldera, Oregon, June 2023

Over 50 million years of geology surrounds us where the Lower Crooked River canyon winds through rimrock, extraordinary lava formations and river meadows.

Posted 06/01/2022


Painting with Gouache - Plein Air Workshops

Painting with Gouache - Plein Air Workshops on the Oregon Coast, and in the Lower Crooked River Canyon

Posted 04/04/2022


Traveling to France

Can I travel to France safely now, and what do I need to know?

Posted 02/22/2022