About Julie Bevan

Hey there! I’m Julie, a proud mum to my beautiful daughter, Cleo. My love for art has been lifelong, but my journey to actually becoming an artist has been anything but straightforward.

Straight out of school, I did what I thought was the ‘smart’ thing—I studied finance, believing that a stable, secure career was the only way to be successful. That path led me to the world of stockbroking, a high-pressure, male-dominated industry where I constantly felt like I had to fight to prove myself. I have some truly hair-raising stories from those years—things that, thankfully, wouldn’t fly in most workplaces today. While I made a lot of money, I felt drained and disconnected from who I really was.

So, I walked away. I sold my car, packed a backpack, and spent the next 18 months traveling the world. From Hong Kong to San Francisco, across Russia and Africa, I visited at least 11 countries. That journey was life-changing. I met people who had almost nothing but still radiated joy, and it opened my eyes to all the different ways life can be lived—outside of the traditional 9-5, mortgage, and ‘climb the corporate ladder’ mentality.

Before I left, I had been experimenting with making leather and knitted handbags just for fun, and while travelling, I started collecting beautiful beads and stones—natural turquoise, blue lapis, little treasures I found along the way. I began making jewellery with my finds, just for myself, but soon people started commenting on the pieces I was wearing. Jewellery wasn’t entirely new to me—my parents had been in the jewellery business, so I had grown up around it. When I returned to Ireland, launching my own jewellery business felt like a natural next step.

For the first few years, I loved it. But over time, I found myself designing jewellery based on what I knew would sell rather than what truly inspired me. I lost the creative spark. Seventeen years later, just after Covid, I knew I couldn’t do it anymore. I sold the business and finally gave myself permission to return to the passion I had set aside so many years ago—painting.

As a teenager, I had dreamed of painting large canvases and even considered going to art school, but at the time, it didn’t feel like a ‘real’ career. Nearly 20 years later, I picked up a paintbrush again. I still remember finishing my first piece—aptly named First—and feeling a deep sense of peace and accomplishment. It was like something inside me had finally clicked into place.

Since becoming a mum in 2015, my perspective on life shifted even more. I wanted to raise my daughter in a present, connected, and conscious way. I never returned to full-time work because I didn’t want to miss out on those precious moments with her. Travel had always been a huge source of inspiration for me, so every winter, we would spend a couple of months in a beautiful city or a tropical destination as a family. During that time, I did a lot of self-reflection—asking myself what kind of life I truly wanted.

When I finally put pen to paper and wrote out my dream life, I couldn’t ignore it anymore. It was clear: I wanted to travel, work remotely, expose my daughter to different cultures and experiences, and, most importantly, paint. That’s when I took a leap of faith, sold my business, and in 2021, picked back up the paintbrush I had put down so many years before.

Now, I’m finally living the life I once only dreamed about—creating large, abstract canvases filled with energy and emotion, inspired by my travels and personal journey. If I’ve learned anything along the way, it’s this: it’s never too late to follow the dream that’s been quietly waiting for you.