About the Artists
Graham and Julie Fox
Visual ArtistS
Born in Exeter, England in 1957 after a largely uneventful childhood, Graham studied medicine and science embarking on a career in research science. However, the arts proved too great a pull, and in a change of direction, he abandoned his science career and took up photography whilst holding down a series of regular jobs. At the same time Graham became a student of Zen and to this day Zen has a huge influence on all of his work.
In 2002 Graham and his wife Julie moved to Canada so that Julie could pursue her career in science. Living in Calgary, Graham opened an art gallery along with two other artists (Vanishing Point Art Gallery), selling a mix of photographs and digitally created images. He also exhibited widely and was part of an Artist Coop (Counterflux)
Another change of direction took Graham and Julie to Oliver in the South Okanagan where they designed and built a pet boarding kennel which they ran for 10 years.
In 2019 Graham officially “retired” and spent his time looking after the acreage and focusing more formally on his art and writing. At this time his work was mainly shown as one of the resident artists at The Long Gallery and Studios (Penticton).
In 2023 Graham and Julie Moved back to UK and are now busy setting up their own Gallery in beautiful Dawlish, Devon.
Julie Fox
Julie is a Doctoral Scientist (Virology) who was born in Redditch and spent her childhood living in the Midlands (Sutton Coldfield) and South Wales (Crickhowell). She was always creative and loved art and crafts at a young age. Having an interest in Science and Medicine she found herself propelled into an academic career in Virology via University of Warwick, University College London, University of Wales College of Medicine and University of Calgary. There was little time for her artistic side to flourish during this 20 year span!
Julie spent 21 years in Canada during which time she stepped back from Academia (2008) to design, set up and run a dog and cat boarding facility with her husband (Graham Fox). She also worked as a veterinary assistant and trained to be a Pilates instructor (2019-2023). Again life was very busy and her artistic side was not given much space apart from some graphic work designing logos, marketing materials and web sites!
In October 2023 Julie relocated back to the UK to Graham’s home County of Devon. Living by the sea and close to Dartmoor has proved to be very inspirational and once settled in Dawlish she is finally able to explore her artistic side and has become quite prolific! She loves to sketch and still likes the simplicity of pencil and pastel work. Recently she has been exploring watercolour and acrylic techniques – she loves to create textural pieces.
Finally she (and her husband) have the time to both focus on the arts. Moonnomoon Art Gallery in Dawlish will be their first joint artistic venture and give them both the opportunity to display their favourite art pieces.
"Photography for me is mostly about observing and now I feel the need to use a medium which is more about saying - something to say, rather than just to show ."
"My visual art work includes photography and mixed media (principally pastels and graphite combined with digital imaging).
My writing is an exploration of Zen in poetry and prose."
"I cannot emphasize enough the influence Zen has had on my work in the visual arts. It is really the wellspring from which all flows."
Graham fox
For me art is about capturing the essence of a thing, whatever it may be.
The simplified form, the single line, empty space, all distractions removed, finally we see what is really there.
It is, if you like, a distillation of life. And what do we see in this distillate? – purity, beauty, love, truth? I don’t know, it is not for me to say.
This is why we look at art. The job of the artist is merely to roll back the curtain.
