MÉMOIRES ABSTRACT COLLAGE SERIES

JULIE BRETON | MÉMOIRES No.4 - abstract collage

JULIE BRETON | MÉMOIRES No.2 - abstract collage

The MÉMOIRES series explores the fragmented and shifting nature of memory. Drawn from photographs, places and moments remembered, each work brings together fragments of colour, line and image to suggest something familiar yet difficult to fully retrieve.

Working with translucent paper, graphite, coloured pencil, acrylic, canvas and found imagery, I build the compositions in layers—allowing marks to appear, disappear and overlap.

Vintage photographs and postcards discovered in local antique shops introduce traces of other lives and places, blurring the boundary between personal memory and imagined histories.

Rather than documenting a particular moment, the work evokes the way memories are return to us: incomplete, altered by time and often unexpectedly vivid, creating compositions reminiscent of the fleeting moment.

GLASSHOUSE ABSTRACT SERIES

JULIE BRETON ART | TROPICAL LUST

The GLASSHOUSE series is inspired by the Victorian glasshouses and conservatories that once symbolized prosperity, discovery, and progress. Today, many survive only as remnants of another era—abandoned structures slowly reclaimed by nature.

I am fascinated by vintage photographs of their opulent grandeur and imagine them filled to capacity with lush tropical plants and rare botanicals competing for light beneath soaring glass ceilings. Built to showcase exotic collections from around the world, these extraordinary spaces reflected the optimism and ambitions of a rapidly changing society.

JULIE BRETON ART | WORK IN PROGRESS

As the modern era emerged and cultural values shifted, many of these magnificent structures fell into decline. Their fading grandeur serves as a reminder that even the most ambitious creations are shaped by the passage of time.

In this series, lush botanicals coexist with unexpected colours, abstract forms, and contemporary mark-making. The work explores the intersection of nature and culture, past and present, creating imagined landscapes where history, memory, and transformation converge. You can follow my progress with this series on Instagram below.