Julie Verhoeven on Martine Sitbon:

“Martine to me exudes a child-like wonderment and spirit. Super-attractive, bright, shiny and rockin’. I am thrilled and happy to have passed through her world and continue to be touched by the experience.”

For a Paris-based designer, Martine Sitbon’s fascination with London and it’s wealth of talent seems to extend far across the English channel – from the music she enjoys, to the photographers she works with like Nick Knight and Katerina Jebb. Continuing this love affair with British talent, we present the work of London-based artist and illustrator Julie Verhoeven, a woman whose ethereal and subtly erotic illustrations have captured Martine Sitbon’s imagination – spurring an eight year working relationship and a much longer friendship between the two women.

Julie Verhoeven creates her own brand of sensual illustrations firmly entrenched in a study of the feminine – a fusion of thematic concerns of sexuality, innocence, power and surrealism that blur the lines between art and fashion, of precision and emotion, light and dark, and fantasy and reality. The women she draws hold a cartoonish appeal, with large, heavy-lidded eyes, coy little mouths and dramatic proportions – an emphasis on their big heads and what is inside their minds, yet played against the beauty of their physical forms.

For A#5, a series of her images has been included from the 2007 project ‘The Female Graze’ , a 40 minute film project on which Julie worked with N/A Design.

View an excerpt from the video ‘The Female Graze’ here: