Background
Judy's interest in art began at age five when she was given a chalkboard for her birthday. She spent many childhood hours practicing drawing and striving for perfection in every detail. Fascinated by popular animated movies, she dreamed of one day working as an artist for Walt Disney Studios.
As a young woman she studied drawing and painting at the Maryland Institute of Fine Art, and hoped to make art her career. However, encouraged by her husband (an electrical engineer), she found she also enjoyed the elegance and technical precision of computer programming. She went on to earn a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, while taking many art classes as electives.
As a computer professional her attention to detail and creativity made her an asset to the Westinghouse Electric Company, where she served as a software designer. She spent her free time designing clothes for her daughter, as well as bulletins, brochures and banners for her church and other non-profit organizations. She also helped to design stained glass windows for a hospital and two local churches.
Upon retiring from professional life Judy seized the opportunity to pursue her love of fine art without distraction. She has continued her art studies formally at Anne Arundel Community College and Maryland Hall for Creative Arts, and informally by working with local artists. She is a member of the Artist's Round Table East, Kent Island Federation of Arts, Academy Art Museum, and the Portrait Society of America.
Artistic Style
Judy's work is representational (also called "progressive realism"), which is art inspired by classical principles that incorporates modern ideas. She favors the mediums of pencil, charcoal, pastel and especially oil. With oil, she prefers to use a mono-underpainting and then apply glazes, which allows her to build up many layers of paint to capture nuances of shading and mood. She strives to convey deep emotional concepts in her art while celebrating the beauty of everyday life. She finds demanding subjects rewarding, and often performs wide-ranging research to collect information from different sources before synthesizing the ideas into a single painting.
She enjoys painting people and animals in a quiet or reflective pose; she also finds expression in still life, landscapes, and even words arranged to convey a unified meaning or underlying truth. She draws inspiration from photographs, travel, dreams, Biblical studies, and the natural beauty of Maryland's Eastern Shore where she lives. In all things, she dedicates her efforts to God; and through her artwork she hopes to comfort, uplift and inspire others while glorifying God's presence in her life.
