96 - JULIE AUBRUN (Nancy, France).

JULIE AUBRUN (Nancy, France). "Crustaceans," Balear Essence Series. Watercolor on paper. Signed and titled. Measurements: 70 x 50 cm. Julie Aubrun is a French artist, illustrator, and author whose career is deeply rooted in the Mediterranean and, in particular, the island of Formentera. From a very young age, she felt a strong attraction to drawing, colors, and the natural world. At the age of eighteen, she moved to Paris to study Art and Visual Communication at the Intuit/Lab school, where she graduated in 2000. During her formative years, she discovered that illustration was the medium that best allowed her to express her unique way of observing the world. After completing her studies, her life’s journey took her to various places, including Marseille and Barcelona, until she arrived in Formentera in 2012. The island marked a turning point both personally and artistically. Its landscapes, vegetation, animals, and traditions began to take center stage in her work and became a constant source of inspiration. Through watercolor, Julie Aubrun constructs a delicate and luminous universe in which nature takes center stage. Her works are rooted in a careful observation of reality, but they do not seek merely to reproduce it: through color, composition, and a poetic vision, the artist transforms flowers, birds, cacti, trees, landscapes, and elements of traditional architecture into images brimming with sensitivity. Throughout her career, she has exhibited in various locations in Spain and France, including Formentera, Mallorca, Menorca, Barcelona, Marseille, and Paris. In projects such as *Mar adentro*, *Mi ciudadela*, and *Essència balear*, she has explored the relationship between territory, memory, nature, and identity. In *Essència balear*, presented in 2023, she focused on elements characteristic of the islands, such as their flora, fauna, and cuisine. In 2026, she presented *Flores y salvajes* in Formentera, a collection of watercolors dedicated to wildflowers and the diverse forms of life that make up the island’s landscape. The exhibition brought together plant species, birds, and other elements of Formentera’s environment, once again showcasing the intimate bond the artist has developed with her host territory. Julie Aubrun’s work thus arises from the intersection of observation and emotion. Her painting transforms Mediterranean nature into a visual language of its own, in which every flower, every animal, and every landscape can become a small story. From Formentera, the artist continues to develop a body of work in which color, the delicacy of watercolor, and respect for the environment come together to create a personal and poetic perspective on the world around her.