Julie Purdie

Julie Purdie is a Hunter Valley-based artist and clinical optometrist whose work draws on vision science to inform her photography and painting practice. With over 20 years experience in optometry, she uses her understanding of colour, detail, spatial awareness, and visual processing to create works that reflect the way we experience the world through sight.Working across photography, acrylic, and oil painting,

Purdie creates images that shift between observation, memory, and perception. Her process often begins with sketches and photographic studies that evolve through layering, masking, long exposure photography, camera movement, and painterly abstraction. Influenced by the physiology of vision, her works simplify, fragment, and soften imagery to reflect the changing experience of focus and attention across the visual field. Purdie was a finalist in the 2025 Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize and the 2024 National Emerging Art Prize, and has been a multiple finalist in the Newcastle ClubFoundation Art Prize, receiving the Staff Choice Award in 2024