J U D Y   M c C O M B S

Spring in Colorado
18" x  24"

        
    Outside Sienna                                             Cafe Ninopolis                                     Summer in Normandy
  16" x  20"                                                        16" x  12"                                                    20" x  24"   
 

"I won a drawing contest in the second grade and that set my course.  My father's job took the family to many places across the United States.  It was while living in Puerto Rico that on my fourteenth birthday that my father gave me a set of oil paints and an easel.  My first subjects were of the local beaches.

I started my career as a high school teacher, then moved into my studio/classroom more than 25 years ago.  I love to teach and have learned so much from my students.  My studio is full of energy when my students are here.  We are serious about learning and my classes are not for the thin-skinned.  I teach my classes using the lessons from the painters we all admire.

I remain, however, a student of art and owe so much to the lessons of the great painters of the past and present.  There are so many but to name a few ...Fechin, Sargant, Hassam, Ceciella Beaux, Chase, Zorn, and the list could go on and on.  For me, Richard  Schmidt is the greatest living painter.  I study for color, brushwork, composition and anything to help me on my own painting journey. It is an un-ending struggle for me.....the more I learn the less I seem to know....almost a love/hate situation.  Too much, too little, too dark, too light...and on and on it goes.

I have had several painting shows televised.  The PBS show, Wonderful World of Art, Painting with Judy, aired in more than forty states.  We filmed a series in Kauai but other series were done in my studio.  Earl, my large talking cat, received most of the fan mail.  It can be difficult when given 22 minutes to complete a pastel or an oil painting, no time for mistakes at that speed!  I paint much slower in "real life" and my paintings seem to be finished.

My workshops each May are to Italy and/or France.  Leonard Wren, the wonderful painter from Lopez Island in Washington State has gone with my groups for the past two years.  It is just amazing to watch him paint with such speed and accuracy of color.  He is one of the truly fine painters of our time.  Leonard and I were given a show together in Dodson Gallery last year.  Seeing all of our Italian paintings hanging side by side was so thrilling for me!  

The love of nature is my reason to paint.  To spend the day outside, not just looking but really seeing nature....life just doesn't get any better!  A great day is spent painting the woods and ponds that surround my home.  I travel often, gathering information for painting subjects.  Photography and plein air sketches help during the winter months when I am in my studio.  Some of my best work comes from trips taken alone.  It was unnerving a couple of years ago when a Montana rancher scolded me for painting alone and bringing a lunch into bear territory!

To be earning a living doing what I love and in the most wonderful places is just too much to ask..  We landscape painters spend our lives trying to put on canvas what we are feel about what it is we are seeing. 

We are truly blessed."
Biography supplied by the Artist

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