After a career in journalism and professional writing, MacLusky moved to Great Malvern in 2015, and subsequently enrolled in a range of classes, including the Access to Higher Education Course at Malvern College of Art. During her studies, MacLusky developed a strong narrative theme within her work, and in 2020 she was honoured to be accepted into the Story-Teller’s Collective.
With a background as a former BBC broadcast news journalist, and author of fiction, non-fiction and screenplays, MacLusky found that her focus was constantly drawn back to the narrative potential of her artistic practice. Whilst courses taken at the Art College involved engaging with a range of specialities, including oil, graphite, metalwork, and sculpture, and work was produced in response to a very wide range of assignment briefs, inevitably each piece would incorporate some form of narrative.
One of Julie MacLusky’s early paintings, ‘Palmyra Burning’, used images of horses carved into a hunting frieze, many of which are now held in the British Museum, from the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-612 BC).
Palmyra Burning, 2019
Having been provided with a book featuring classical depictions of animals, MacLusky found an image of horses from a frieze that formed part of a group of Assyrian palace reliefs from the Palace of Ninevah. The painting was commenced simply, with the goal of updating the horses to the 21st century, by painting them as they would have looked, when alive. Resources used included contemporary saddles and bridles used on the famous Spanish Lipizzaner horses.
Having brought the horses to ‘life’, the artist remembered having read about the destruction of Palmyra, a story that had briefly dominated news headlines, and was then too quickly forgotten by the world’s media.
Whilst the monument, described as the ‘Venice of the Desert’, had been occupied in the past by Muslim forces who had found no reason to destroy it, its desecration at the hands of Isis it became a form of psychological warfare, a method used to attack the heart and soul of the country.
Jeffries, S (2015) wrote that ‘Isis is destroying the ‘Venice of the sands’ piece by piece – and worse atrocities may be yet to come. Will the brutal organisation erase the memory of Syria’s extraordinary history?’
Whilst 240,000 people had already died during the civil war by 2015, the murder of the 81 year old former director of antiquities at Palmyra earned worldwide condemnation. After refusing to lead his captors to hidden antiquities, he was beheaded and his body hung on a column in Palmyra’s remaining colonnaded streets.
Having researched images of the ancient site, Julie MacLusky decided to include a depiction of this destruction within the painting inspired by the Assyrian Frieze. The aim was to imagine how the citizens of the Ancient Assyrian Empire would react to the destruction wreaked upon their incredible heritage.
The picture was selected for display on the Great Malvern Art Walk in the town as part of the Malvern Art College’s annual exhibition.
MacLusky’s next painting, James MacLusky flying in a Sopwith Camel,1919 was created following international celebrations for hundred-year anniversary of the end of the First World War, in November 1919. During the summer of 1919 Julie MacLusky’s grandfather, James MacLusky, was stationed in Hertfordshire, whilst training as a navigator with the Royal Flying Corps. A photograph that he had taken, of a Zeppelin, was used as inspiration for the painting (below).
James’ MacLusky’s original photograph of a Zeppelin
James MacLusky, photographed in his navigator’s uniform, in the back of a Sopwith Camel
Research into the uniform worn by Flying Corps officers, and the types of cameras used by navigators, contributed to the overall composition.
The average life expectancy for those flying in planes during WW1 was 93 flying hours, and in the painting the artist aimed to convey the extreme vulnerability of aircrew, flying without seatbelts or parachutes, exposed to the elements and leaning over the side of the aircraft to take pictures. Her grandfather had insisted on enrolling in the forces, despite being in a restricted profession, as a gas engineer, and his survival, and subsequent life as a father and grandfather, was only secured with the armistice a few months after his photographs were taken. The picture was selected for display as part of Malvern Art College’s Annual Summer exhibition.
James MacLusky flying in a Sopwith Camel, 1919
MacLusky’s more recent work has encompassed environmental concerns. Thus in St Francis of Assisi Praying for us (below) she envisions the Saint visiting the Great Malvern Priory in the aftermath of a demonstration by the environmental protest group, Extinction Rebellion, and praying to intervene in the destruction of the planet that this group is fighting to prevent. This picture was also selected for display as part of Malvern Art College’s Annual Summer exhibition.
St Francis of Assisi Praying for us
In her first piece of jewellery, MacLusky wanted to engage with what has been called the ‘Sixth Mass Extinction’ (Carrington, D, 2017) by focussing upon the fate of one of the most appealing animals, the tiger, whose numbers have shrunk from an estimated 100,000 in 1900, to 3900, (World Wildlife Fund Magazine, 2016). The images of running tigers were used in combination with an excerpt from Sir Phillip Sydney’s poem, ‘Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind’ which includes the Latin lines ‘Noi mi tangere’ – do not touch me.
Interior of bracelet
Exterior of bracelet
The inclusion of narrative themes continues to dominate MacLusky’s most recent paintings. He’s just not that into you, depicts a couple at a pool party. It is implied that while the woman is in love with the man, the man is seeking the attentions of another.
He’s just not that into you
In View of Causey Pike with 4x4 access the artist has chosen to express her objection to the Lake District National Park Authority’s support of vehicular access to the hills by 4x4’s, on the grounds that it enables non-traditional groups, such as urban populations, to visit the hills.
View of Causey Pike with 4x4 access
In conclusion, a review of MacLusky’s narrative paintings and her jewellery indicates that her inclusion as part of this innovative and visionary collective is extremely well-earned.