As soon Julie Chapman could hold a crayon or anything that made a mark, she began to draw on anything that didn't move real fast, her subject... horses. She aspired to be like John James Audubon, who was among the first to see and paint this continent's wildlife!  "I still draw horses, and since I'm basically a critter lover, I paint animals. Winged, four-legged, hooves, claws, large, small - doesn't matter, if it's an animal, I'm fascinated and I gotta paint it."  

Julie Chapmans paints impressionistically, as she sits down to a canvas, she is faced with the daunting task of getting the georgeous vibrancy of an animal subject into oil paint, an impossible task that lends it self to waisting an enormous amount of paint as she uses the palette knife to create clean slashes of bold color. " I do my own research and reference collection in the beautiful wild spaces of the West; my husband is a wildlife videographer, and his work has influenced me to look for the paintable story, not just the paintable scene. Whenever we head off someplace remote to photograph animals, I find that I usually can't wait to get home and sort through my slides, squeal with excitement, and begin painting. There is no other way to capture the emotion and intensity of experiencing wildlife and wild places than firsthand. in addition, we have often been privileged to witness behavior we've never read about, and this original research is incredibly stimulating."

Julie Chapman has won numerous pestigious awards for her work, two in which she is particularly proud of are the Award of Excellence at her first Society of Animal Artists annual exhibition in September 2002, after just being juried into the Society, the $50,000 prize is one of the richest art awards in the nation, and has been won previously by notables such as Richard Schmid.The painting that won is entitled "Illumination", and is based on a magical encounter she had on the wild coastline of Katmai National Park in Alaska as she journeyed with her husband there via floatplane and boat to film grizzlies catching salmon. The second was the Grand Prize at the 2002 Arts for the Parks.

Julie Chapmans' artistic influences are Bob Kuhn, Carl Rungius, Richard Schmid, Wayne Thiebaud, Maynard Dixon, Nicolai Fechin, and many others along the way.