I’m an artist working from my studio in Walsall, West Midlands. All my life I have been creative, my first day of school, I told the teacher I wanted be an artist. I’ve always made things and was never happier than when getting messy and experimenting with crayons, glue, paint, paper- mache, pipe cleaners, biros, sewing, and woodworking with my grandfather.
I studied for my degree in London at Camberwell School of Art, it was in printed textiles and fine art, I made huge textile installations and painted hangings. I studied painting in Paris and spent 3 months working with Les Lallanes two sculptors that lived just outside of Fountainebleau. After graduating I worked in theatre as a set designer, which included working on props, painting backdrops and costumes, eventually working in film, these were very collaborative processes creating environments that people inhabit.
Then my two wonderful daughters arrived, I wanted to be home with my daughters, and not on location, I moved into designing interiors for restaurants and bars. Eventually I set up my own restaurants and wine bars, as the children grew up I went back to working in theatre and film again. I also devoted time mentoring young people who wanted to break into the arts, via an art and design apprenticeship scheme.
I was on a treadmill, until I had life changing surgery, in 2015.
This was game changing, it took me 18 months to recover, I started to swim daily as walking was painful, and I was still caring for my elderly father. It was then that I decided to focus on painting the one thing I always wanted to do. I thought if I don’t do it now when will I follow my dream of being an artist. I still swim almost every day in a pool, wild swim at weekends in the sea, rivers and lakes, being in the water is my happy place, it helped restore more life and joy for the world.
Firstly there were courses at art school to build my confidence, and then being mentored by artists I aspired to be like. Finally I realised what had been missing in my life, it was such a joy, I loved working large I had this need to move as I painted. With the support of my partner, I rented a studio, my work began to flourish and Galleries started to be interested.
I’m inspired by nature its complexity and ambiguity, the continual changes in the seasons, weather and light. How the oceans move like we breathe, the perpetual motion of our planet and the uniqueness of everything natural. I shun the mass produced uniformity of objects and take joy from the rawness and scars on the land and life.
Just as the land and the natural world are made by chance, I try emulate this within my art practice taking chances experimenting and knowing when to embrace the happy accidents. I now paint the world I inhabit instead of creating worlds for actors to inhabit. The drama and emotion I feel for the natural world, the rawness of the elements are evident within my paintings.
Jude’s paintings are based on capturing the essence of feelings, emotions and the invisible, eternal energy that pervades in the universe, focusing on the sacred landscape or figure and it’s scarcity in current time. Inspired by nature, creating from a place of no time, no space, no body.
Jude creates her paintings through a process of applying pigments, oils, solvents and water pouring dripping, creating pools, then tilting and manoeuvring the canvas, creating a breeze causing the paint to move and evaporate. Just as water is a powerful factor in shaping the natural landscape, using the fluidity of the paint as part of the process resonates with this formation, layering paint, creating textures, leaving traces of whats below on the surface of the paint.
Robert Smithson