JUDY BELASCO

     The roaring power of nor’easter waves at Schoodic Point, the beauty of a still lake reflecting Mount Katahdin, and the endless variety of the splendor of the Maine sky: all of these draw me to them. I expand in their presence and share the scene by revisiting it with paint on canvas. The look of a place is vital, but it is the feeling and the wildness of nature that I am most interested in communicating.   I grew up surrounded by paintings in an artistic family. I was taught early on to observe carefully nature’s rich marvels. My first oil paintings at 10 were of water, sky and not a lot of land. I still love those subjects. I also witnessed up close the tumultuous art landscape of the 20th century. My grandfather was a Pennsylvania Impressionist whose 1920s style went out as my father’s Modernist style emerged in the 1950s. That changed into a period of photography for me, my brother and my father in the 1960s. I and my father both returned to painting in Maine in the 1970s. Through that evolution of media I learned to follow my own inner prompting, the only honest guide available.    Living off the grid for long summers in Maine gave me ample opportunity to plein air paint for years. 

     My process generally involves taking a wide range of images from a scene to capture the light, the shapes and the feel of the place. I hone the composition by printing a full value range in many images to form a collage of information. It is a subtle and lengthy compositional process. I also often draw or paint on site.   When the composition is determined, I sketch it on canvas and begin the layered painting process. I paint in oil and each layer must dry before the next one goes on, so I work on four or five paintings at the same time, though usually only one a sitting. A painting can take me as little as five days and as long as six months to complete.