Julie Wilson was born and grew up in South Africa which has a long tradition of botanical illustration. Julie began drawing at an early age, encouraged by a talented father. Surrounded by a large garden and the wild flowers of the Drakensberg Mountains of Kwa-Zulu Natal she developed a love of nature and the outdoors. She studied botany at the University of Natal and became an enthusiastic amateur botanist and gardener. Her passion for plants, especially those native to her area, led to a wish to interpret them in watercolour.
Julie has five years of high school training in art but her interest in botanical watercolours began much later in 2000. After the death of her first husband in 2002 she began to focus more seriously on the detail and technique required for interpretation of plant specimens. She attended several courses offered by internationally renowned botanical artists in Cape Town, producing works that have been bought by botanical art enthusiasts from England, South Africa, Australia, the United States and Canada.
Julie remarried in 2007 and spent three summers in Newfoundland where she was taken by the uniqueness and rarity of the Newfoundland native plants. She was commissioned in 2008 by the Royal Canadian Mint to submit a design of the Pitcher Plant for their provincial 99.99% gold coin series. The coin was issued in April 2009.
Julie holds a Higher Education Diploma, an MA and a D. Litt. et Phil in South African Rural History. She and her husband live in Hammonds Plains where Julie has a studio. She is now dividing her time between her country of birth where she has a daughter, Nova Scotia and Australia where her son now lives.
