I want to thank
Stacy Williams-Ng, a fine artist and reviewer
Jerry Luterman, a photographer, who took time taking great photos
and Milwaukee Home and Fine Living Magazine for...
Feature Story for February 2009 about Judith Reidy's Mist Paintings
or read below
Review by Stacy William - Ng
in February 2009 Issue of MILWAUKEE HOME and FINE LIVING
JUDITH REIDY IS A SOFT-SPOKEN, THOUGHTFUL artist whose intelligence and dedication to her work sparkle through her like flecks of pink light in her misty landscapes. She compares her recent work to investigating a mystery. Judith’s pieces are completed after hours of observation, studying the gradations of color as they fluctuate in the atmosphere. In warm weather, she will work in watercolors in the open air. In winter, she creates “studio works,” relying on memory, supported by photos and color studies. Her final depiction tells a story of how subtle tonal changes took place in the scene over a period of time.
Her pastels of misty Ireland are truly astounding. According to Judith, who visited Ireland last year, “I had become interested in mists here, when I was going up to Crystal Ridge here in Wisconsin, I would go early in the morning, looking due east, and there were these mists that captured my imagination.” When she went to visit her daughter overseas later in the year, the mystical (and misty) scenes of Inishowen Peninsula were a perfect subject matter. “I sat at the window for 13 days, looking at the Bay, studying light, and painting. It was magical.”
One thing that struck Judith while in Ireland was their view of the sky. “I was at the 60th latitude, and I wondered why the sky never achieved the pink that we see here, at about the 44th. I did some research on it and apparently northern European skies get more yellows and whites than North American skies, which show more violets and pinks. In that sense we have light that’s more like what you see in French master landscapes, which would have been created at similar latitudes to ours.”
Judith Reidy is part of a two-person show with Cynthia Son, currently on view at the Griffin Gallery in Oconomowoc. The show will be up through the end of February.
STACEY WILLIAMS-NG
The mists and skies of Ireland inspired local artist Judith Reidy (above) during her travel, and she captures their beauty in her artwork.
February 2009 Issue of - MILWAUKEE HOME and FINE LIVING page13Check back each month for articles selected from Milwaukee Home & Fine Living
