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June Stratton grew up in and around the Bay Area in Northern California, attending the College of Fine Arts and Crafts in Oakland until 1979. Not satisfied with the painting skills she had been taught, Stratton worked on developing her own technique for the next several years. It was not until she moved to Seattle that she started her professional career in 1989. During this period June primarily worked on western landscapes and was encouraged and influenced by counsel from gallery owners she showed with, notably Kent Lovelace at Stone Press Editions in Seattle and John Pence at the John Pence Gallery in San Francisco. During this period her work was acquired by many major collections including Bank of America, US Department of State, The Mayo Clinic and Texaco Incorporated.
In 2001, Stratton’s career took a major turn with her move to Atlanta, Georgia. Taking a brief hiatus, including trips to France, she again focused on developing her painting technique and style. Transforming over the next several years, Stratton’s work evolved into the current form that is more figure oriented and cinematic in style. Successful solo and group shows in Savannah and Boston’s Lanoue Fine Art Gallery confirmed her avuiore . Some of her latest work can be seen in major movie productions, national and international collections including the acclaimed St Regis Hotel art collection.
June explains her work by saying, “My paintings are imagined blends of beauty and nature. These paintings are often intentionally idealized representations of emotional impressions from my dreams – entwined with elements of the earth, sky and water that surround my real world. I use symbols and my feminine viewpoint to tell a very loose, abstracted narrative. As in my dreams, my muses cannot see all things, are sometimes unable to speak and frequently appear to be floating.
I add silver to my paintings because the finished image reflects the ambient light that surrounds it. This makes the artwork change visually depending on the perspective of the viewer. This, I think, adds to the ethereal quality of my subjects’ stories.”