From Candace Perry, curator 2004, Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center . . .

Her passion for painting has attracted the attention of a wide audience. In her familiar surroundings Julie is fondly known as an artist of the people. She not only draws her inspiration from local landscape, but returns her scenic portraits back to communities to raise money for charity.

Julie's Berks County, home is surrounded by the rolling hills, farmlands and forests of southestern Pennsylvania. From an early age these surroundings influenced her artistic development. After completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, she began a career as a fine artist, first working in Williamsburg, Virginia before settling in Pennsylvania where she established her name among the artists of the mid-Atlantic states. Awards and exhibitions soon gave way to the commissions that remain the major portion of her work today.

She is comfortably proficient working in any medium, whether it be watercolor, oil or acrylic. Her preference of medium depends on the effect she wishes to achieve. Her studios are set up with a designated area for each medium, allowing her to move from one to the other with ease. She has several paintings in progress at any given time.

The majority of her work is realistic and subjective in nature, leaning to impressionistic style in various compositions, reveals her pleasure playing with color, seeking the light of those magic hours the impressionists so loved to capture. After years of painting and filling her sketch books with realistic images, she enjoys creating compositions from memory, bending reality with a bit of abstraction. She classifies these under the heading of Colonial Surrealism, a term she invented in 1980. She gives whimsical names to some of these series like Sunset Memoirs, The Hills of Blue Moon and her new collection "Moonlight Memoirs."

Julie's paintings encompass a variety of subjects and styles, moods and color forms, but one thing is for sure, she has not lost her love for painting, nor has she forgotten her roots. Although her home today, remains in Pennsylvania, growing up, she spent her summers in Seeleys Bay, Ontario. There she found a love for the Canadian landscape. In 1999, she established Harbourview studio in Port Hood, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where she continues to paint and write.

A Review by Larry Roeder, 2009 Editor, Town and Country Newspaper

The Place I Keep is a wonderful trip into the mind and heart of Julie Longacre. Her poems are heartwarming, amusing, and inspirational. Each one is capable of provoking a personal remembrance for the reader. The poems are interspersed with anecdotes, bringing you into the sonnets that introduce you to the life of a very talented artist.

Her beautiful sketches, set throughout the work, provide a gentle pause for the mind and allow one to reflect on her words, while gazing into the simple beauties of life.

Julie's thoughts translate well into her poems. Written over a span of decades, the book could well be an autobiography of the author. Her words reflect moods and experiences sprinkled with the innocence of childhood and the reality of life.

Using the months of the year as a guide, the author transports us into her life, then and now. Using the cool month of November as the start of this warm journey, her pictures and words intertwine to give the reader a cleansing and sometimes soul-searching experience. By the time our minds complete the trip through October, we know Julie and ourselves. There are no favorites in the collection---they are all favorites.

Capable of bringing life to a canvas with pencil, oil or watercolor, in a way few can, Longacre, with The Place I Keep, has added the written word to her contributions to the world of art. Readers will thank her for sharing them.