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Judy was born in 1952 in Western Australia. Her artistic career began at the very early age of 6, when she spent afternoons after school drawing pictures in chalk on the blackboard of the school where her father was a schoolteacher. Encouraged by him to draw, she filled sketchbooks throughout her childhood and teens, with drawings mostly of animals, and especially of horses, her passion.
After studying art for three years and attaining a Diploma in Fine Art at the Claremont School of Art, in Perth, Western Australia in 1978, she headed north to the Kimberley , W.A., and on to Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory. In the north of Australia she discovered all the subjects of her dreams; wetlands, rivers and billabongs full of crocodiles, waterbirds and wildlife, and a vast and changing wild landscape.
Her travels across this country have led to periods of painting in Broome and Kununurra (W.A.); Darwin and Kakadu (N.T.); Cairns and Cape York, Mission Beach and Maleny (Qld). She has produced paintings with subjects ranging from rainforest birds – riflebirds, cassowaries, catbirds – to wetlands and desert creatures – crocodiles, brolgas, magpie geese.
Her great respect for the aboriginal people, and their spiritual connection to the land, has given Judy a direction which has evolved into a distinctive approach to painting them. Her watercolours often depict figures dancing freely in the Australian landscape, along with brolgas, dingos and other animals. With the spectacular colours of the Kimberley to inspire her, Judy loves to paint the mangroves and tidal creeks, the red dirt of the desert, and the turquoise seas which kiss the the white sands of the Kimberley coastline.
She prefers to work in Watercolour and Gouache, but also paints in acrylic on canvas.
Judy spends several months of the year’out bush’ with her husband, Tom, trekking with him and his camel team along the Fitzroy River and into the Great Sandy Desert, and camels have become a new passion for her with many camel paintings resulting from their safaris. A life time passion of hers is horses, she has several on her outback station.
Judy has had many Exhibitions, and her work is represented overseas, and in Collections. Over the years she won several Awards and Prizes and her paintings are exhibited in several Australian galleries.
Judy works from her home, Udialla, an outback station in the heart of the Kimberley.
Judy Prosser developed a deep love of the desert after heading to the Kimberley in the late 70’s, and has lived on a remote station out of Broome for nearly 40 years. She enjoys the solitude and peace found when sitting quietly at a desert waterhole, watching the passing parade of animals and birds that expose themselves to her. The longer she sits the more she sees.
Her enjoyment of the Western Australian wildlife is represented beautifully in her paintings, ranging from crocodiles, waterbirds, brolgas, camels, horses, dingoes and much more.
Judy’s great respect for the Aboriginal people and their culture has resulted in her painting their distinct figures alongside native wildlife portraying the human element as living in harmony with the natural environment, at one with nature.
In the below Q&A Judy explains a little more about herself.
When did you first feel the desire to be artistic and realise that you had talent?
My father was a school teacher and allowed me to draw on the blackboard (in chalk) after primary school, while he was busy. He bought me pencils and sketchpads and encouraged my desire to draw from that point on, 8 yrs old. I was always drawing on something in my classes of high school.
Where did you learn your art?
I studied at Claremont School of Art 1976 to 1978, and achieved a Diploma of Fine Art.
What inspires you most?
Mostly nature, little incidents and interactions with birds and animals. I try to have movement in my paintings, and colour is important too.
What messages are you sending to the viewers of your art?
Be at one with nature.
Describe your studio ..
A building with a huge roof and deck. Tropical gardens all around. My horses grazing around me.
Describe your typical day of creating art ..
I spend a lot of time thinking about what I’d like to paint, visualising the composition and sketching. I tend to work mornings, and do other things in the afternoons. Once I’m painting time flies.
What mediums do you use and why?
Acrylic on canvas, and watercolours. I seem to have an affinity with water; oils seem viscous for me.
What is the process of creating your art?
My paintings are a progression, I learn something new with each one and that leads to the next idea. I work from my imagination, sketch my vision, paint it.
What career achievements do you feel proud of?
I’m just happy that I’m still painting and surprising myself with the images I’m able to take to a conclusion.
What do you love mostly about what you do?
Being able to create images out of my head and see them there on the canvas; realised.
Where can you see yourself in 10 years?
Not changing much, except for the obvious (getting older).
Find out first when new paintings are coming.
