Visual artist Julia Skeen has proved her versatility and acute visual sensitivity in work covering a variety of subject matter in media ranging from oils and watercolours to digital animation.

Her first solo exhibition was held at the Grassroots Gallery in Westville in 1984. Entitled Portrait of a Community, it consisted of watercolour and pencil portraits of local characters living at Botha’s Hill.

The Horn of Plenty comprised 44 watercolour images, combined with the poetry and calligraphy of her husband, Chris Mann to create a unique series of ‘painting-poems’. Six of these were exhibited at the University of Oxford as part of Oxford Arts Week in 2009.

Further collaboration with Mann continued, including a succession of multimedia productions integrating computer-generated graphic images, Mann’s poetry and in many cases, music. The Crux of Being, Heartlands, In Praise of the Shades, Walking on Gravity and Beautiful Lofty Things all premiered at the National Arts Festival and have been performed at numerous high schools and universities across the country.

The latest collaboration with Chris Mann, the book Lifelines, led to an exhibition of the pen and ink drawings at the 2006 National Arts Festival. The book and related multimedia show were launched at the Cape Town International Book Fair.

In 2007, Skeen ventured further into digital media with a video installation based on her Lifelines work and Mann’s original songs. This featured as a Spiritfest production at the National Arts Festival 2007 and a DVD of the work has been well received.

At the 2009 National Arts Festival, Skeen exhibited Wilderness Encounters. This show comprised oil paintings and drawings of the Judean desert.

2010: Illustrated the book Home from Home.This book comprises new and selected poems by Chris Mann. A multi media show was also created to compliment this book.

A new project of oil paintings 'Food of the Bible' is in progress.