Julie Siracusa

Julie Siracusa, known as The Ocean Artist, masterfully uses oil paints to bring sea creatures and the vast ocean to life on canvas with remarkable results. Born and raised in a small town in south Louisiana in the mid-1960s, she began drawing as soon as she could hold a pencil. With parents who encouraged her creativity, Siracusa became the town’s art teacher’s youngest student at five years old, learning to oil paint in a studio space behind the local art supply store. Her love of the water began during trips to the coast to watch her dad race hydroplane boats, planting the seed for the fabulous ocean artworks collectors now seek.
Siracusa studied fine art, art history, and architecture in college, but creating art won out over academic studies. Today she lives in Lafayette, Louisiana, in a house she designed and built while studying architecture. In 1996 she opened Siracusa Design and has become one of the most successful designers in her market while continuing to create fine art that captures the waves, warmth, power, and beauty of the world’s oceans.
During lockdown in spring 2020, Siracusa displayed her large ocean paintings in her front yard to bring socially distanced joy to neighbors. This led to her partnership with Kenny Chesney’s No Shoes Reefs campaign, designing social media images, t-shirts, hats, and logos while raising thousands of dollars for coral reef conservation. She still donates 10 percent of sales to coastal and reef conservation organizations.
An avid SCUBA diver, Siracusa calls her work Outlander Impressionism, aiming to bring viewers under the sea to feel what it’s like diving a coral reef. She is represented by Park West Gallery.