A VISION of our not-so-perfect world is the inspiration of a new exhibition of work by Julie Vernon.

Throughout July, the Bils and Rye gallery at Nunnington will be showcasing Julie's paintings which aim to find beauty in the imperfect.

" I take inspiration from the multi-layered graffiti and poster-clad walls of our city streets and the characters that inhabit them," Julie said.

" I am particularly interested in those individuals who appear beset by hardship, fear or indifference.

She added: "My most recent paintings deal directly with the idea of destitution, homelessness and displacement, and the chaos and solitude that it brings."

Julie's animal paintings consider a different aspect of urban life, that created by man's insatiable appetite to devour our green-belt habitats and replace them with sprawling housing developments.

"In these paintings it is the animal, for example the fox or the owl which, having been displaced from its natural habitat, now shares our towns and cities," she said.

"I am comfortable with both figurative and abstract styles, and whether I am painting human or animal my characters exist within a multi-layered environment of blurs, streaks and rivulets of oil paint, interspersed with printed text, familiar patterns and occasionally gold leaf."

" The way I create a painting can be tremendously chaotic at first with paint thrown and poured onto the canvas then areas scraped or sanded back. Text is added then virtually obliterated before being added again. Only then do I focus my attention on the main subject of the painting."

Julie has won a string of awards and was finalist in the BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year in 2012.

Kate and Nick Bentley, who own Bils and Rye, said they were delighted to be holding a solo show of Julie's work.

"Recent visitors will have seen a few examples of her work in the galleries, all of which received rich praise and many remarks," Kate said.

"We both place a very high value on her work, approach, work and finish which are exemplary. Whilst the subjects will not be to everyone's tastes, we applaud this, the skills involved in the creation of each piece are worthy of note."

For more information visit www.bilsandrye.com