JUDY BUXTON JUDY BUXTON

New Millennium Gallery Cover: Cove light Street-an-Pol · St Ives · Cornwall TR26 2DS · Tel / fax 01736 793121 Email: stive [email protected] · www.newmillenniumgallery.co.uk 26 × 20 cm Oil on board 2005 (detail) his quote referring to Monet’s artistic philosophy could equally be applied to Judy Buxton but follow the movement it makes and capture with the brush the marks it makes in the sky. encouraged Judy to follow her own ideas and develop her own way of expressing herself. who, in choosing to paint on the Lizard Peninsula where she lives, never ceases to find Judy describes it as ‘travelling with the element’. Later on in her teenage years she stopped wanting to be an artist. At high school she says T inspiration within it. This is an area of mystery, largely flat inland but split by river valleys The process in the studio is similar. She works energetically for about four hours, moving that there was a greater emphasis on photography and it was the more graphic work that was at the coast. Judy walks it every day with her dogs and, depending on the weather, paints around the studio working on several paintings at a time. She will not stop for a minute, being appreciated. She knew even then that she wanted to be at one with the materials – to regularly at Poltesco or Goonhilly. constantly walking back and forth around her work. She is totally absorbed, again working paint with her hands and fingers. So having travelled through Europe she ended up in England She likes the isolation of the area, free from people and the noise of cars. Here she can lose instinctively. Her studio she admits is deliberately uncomfortable, without even a chair that might working in a routine office job. It was during a quiet time that she found herself musing on why herself totally and feel at one with nature, immersing herself in the landscape and the process encourage her to take a break or stop working. The finished paintings show no sign of this frenzy she was in London and what she wanted to do and she remembered her childhood wish to be of painting. When recently walking with Judy down to Poltesco, we left the car and followed the of activity. Judy is clear that she loves the beauty of the landscape and she wants to portray it a painter. She took a part-time job, moved out of London, set herself up on a riverbank in track she takes most days down to the cove. I quickly forgot the idealized view of the artist who in all its wonder and rawness. She uses small paintings and drawings as the basis for her studio Gloucestershire and started to sketch and paint. She says, ‘I had to see if I could do it on my works en plein air . It quickly became apparent that this was hard physical activity. The pathway paintings, making many of them in the landscape through all the different seasons. From these own, just me by myself.’ Later she was encouraged to enter art college where she flourished. with its rocks and boulders was difficult to manoeuvre and I could easily imagine Judy loaded studies a decision is made as to which ones can be taken from a small to a large scale. She Now as a professional artist, painting is not for Judy a way of filling an emotional void in her down by several paintings in process, each board separated by tiny nails tacked into the will look for a particular structure or colour and wonder how these elements can be developed. life as it was in the past. However, her ability to separate herself emotionally has developed into corners so as to avoid the wet oil paint mixing with the paint of the other. For many years she It may be that she feels that she has a better example from another day’s sketching and then an important artistic skill enabling her to block out all extraneous thoughts and influences and has also carried brushes and paints on her daily journeys or run the risk of them being stolen she will use that. As she says: ‘There may be something about the movement and the action of therefore totally concentrate on her painting. Artists constantly struggle to balance their when hiding them under rocks. This is a landscape that will endlessly inspire but also can be a it.’ As the painting develops layer upon layer, she will use several drawings as reference points, domestic life with their time spent painting, and often have problems with the solitary life hostile environment that will constantly challenge those who wish to depict it. each holding some key to help the work progress. required. This can be creatively disabling, but for Judy her need to be solitary and at one with Fortunately, she is now able to store her paraphernalia in a hut on an industrial pallet. This she If the painting isn’t going well, she has been known to scrape all the paint off and put it onto the landscape is as much a part of her working practice as paints and brushes. then drags out and uses as a workbase. Even so, she admits that she still has to carry the a canvas, and this can then sometimes form the basis for another painting. After many years of She does however acknowledge that there are often voids, big open centres in her paintings back each day to the studio because she finds it hard to make an assessment of them practice, she understands how colours react with one another. For example, she says, ‘Paint landscapes, the repetition of which she can’t explain. She says, ‘When you look at an empty in the landscape. She is at the mercy of the elements but she stoically accepts this as part of that is grey and murky might react well on yellow ochre, on another colour it might be horrible.’ landscape, a river or sea, it’s a reflection of yourself, the emptiness is looking back at yourself the joy of what she does. She prefers the winter, autumn and spring seasons because the Although Judy sees herself as an innate painter, she now understands that the knowledge she and you are aware you are completely on your own.’ Judy acknowledges now that she doesn’t weather is so much more changeable and this creates interest and variation within the work. has gained has become part of her psyche and therefore part of her character. She says, ‘I have feel like an outsider, she is happily married to her artist husband Jeremy Annear and they Summer skies that are clear blue and cloudless are not exciting to Judy precisely because an intuition as to what to do to stimulate the painting. I sometimes spend hours on a painting have a daughter and a whole menagerie of pets. Despite that, she still needs privacy in her life. nothing is happening in them. and it may all go into a murky mess, but then something exciting happens and having scraped Painting and her working practices provide endless opportunities to find that harmony While painting she doesn’t like to be analytical, she works fast and automatically, trying not to some paint off you can return to the original painting and re-apply fresh paint.’ As she describes within herself. think at all. She uses her instincts. She says, ‘It is all about what the painting needs, about its the process she is totally animated and excited by the endless possibilities she encounters. I have often noticed that people who lead busy lives in cities seem, if not consciously, then weight, about masses – putting one colour against another. It is not measured – I work on the Whilst she is totally engrossed in her work when painting and could be described as driven, certainly unconsciously, to have a need to be connected to nature and the landscape. One paintings quite furiously and then walk back across the beach and make a decision back at the she also understands the need to find time to appraise the work and reflect on it. Walking in the collector referred to the Judy Buxton they owned as ‘feeding’ them until they were able to return ‘An artist can spend his life in the same place without exhausting studio.’ She may rework them many times, or it may work in one session. Occasionally, landscape and spending time with her family can help with that process. Judy remembers that to Cornwall again. For those who feel they are only connected to that mystical Cornish the possibilities of the constantly renewed scene around him.’ something can come from just scraping the last of the paints off her pallet but generally her work painting has always been important to her emotional stability. When she was five and growing landscape through ownership of one of her paintings, the feeling that these are wonderfully Gustave Geffroy – Claude Monet Exhibition May 1891 involves a lot of labour and a considerable time period. up in Australia, her father died and understandably she felt isolated, sad, and from that time profound works intimately engaged with nature is overwhelming. They truly satisfy a fundamental Ultimately she is hoping for changes in the weather, clouds moving in an interesting way, something of an ‘outsider’. She however recognized even then that she had her paintings. Her primal need. changes in light, bird flight. Then she is able to follow one of these aspects with her brush. For work was quite advanced for her age and it was her teachers who put the idea into her head example, if she is following a bird flying through the landscape, her aim is not to paint it pictorially that she could be an artist. Her mother, whilst not a professional painter was talented and David Falconer 2006

2 3 Tremayne riverbank (autumn) 2005 152 × 182 cm Oil on canvas

4 Heath, ochre light 2005 120 × 160 cm Oil on canvas

6 7 Goonhilly, autumn heath, big sky 15 × 33 cm Oil on board 2005

Goonhilly, autumn heath II Heath, autumn ochres I 15 × 25 cm Oil on board 2005 56 × 56 cm Oil on board 2005

8 9 Goonhilly, autumn heath, clearing 15 × 33 cm Oil on board 2005

Goonhilly, autumn heath III Goonhilly, autumn horizon 14.5 × 24 cm Oil on board 2005 33 × 41 cm Oil on board 2005

10 11 Carleon, autumn clouds, windy day Cove, wind rush, 2005 28 × 30 cm Oil on board 2005 122 × 122 cm Oil on canvas

12 13 Cove series, storm Cove series, clearing light 50 × 56 cm Oil on board 2005 61 × 61 cm Oil on board 2005

14 15 Tremayne River passage, 2005 120 × 160 cm Oil on canvas

16 17 Coastal hues I 15 × 48 cm Oil on board 2005

Sea blues I Winter cove, sea spray, 2006 21 × 30 cm Oil on board 2005 92 × 96 cm Oil on canvas

18 19 Coastal hues II 15 × 48 cm Oil on board 2005

Sea blues II Winter cove, dark shore, 2006 21 × 31 cm Oil on board 2005 91 × 96 cm Oil on canvas

20 21 Winter cove, white light, gulls, 2006 Cove, pale light 91 × 96 cm Oil on canvas 121 × 121 cm Oil on canvas, 2005

22 23 Umber heath, 2005 152 × 152 cm Oil on canvas

24 Carleon light Cove, sweep, 2005 23 × 30 cm Oil on board 2005 102 × 106 cm Oil on canvas

26 27 Carleon Cove, summer spin, 2005 178 × 177 cm Oil on canvas

28 Poltesco vista I 15 × 61 cm Oil on board 2005

Poltesco vista II Poltesco headland I 11 × 61 cm Oil on board 2005 30 × 31 cm Oil on board 2005

30 31 Carleon Cove, steel sea 152 × 152 cm Oil on canvas

32 Goonhilly light Goonhilly, autumn heath III Heath, autumn ochres II 25.5 × 30 cm Oil on board 2005 14.5 × 24 cm Oil on board 2005 46 × 48 cm Oil on board 2005

34 35 Cove series, passage I Cove series, passage II 46 × 46 cm Oil on board 2005 46 × 48 cm Oil on board 2005

36 37 Cove series, steel & serpentine I Cove series, steel & serpentine II 61 × 61 cm Oil on board 2005 61 × 61 cm Oil on board 2005

38 39 Cove series, green horizon Cove series, foreshore sweep 51 × 66 cm Oil on board 2005 50 × 56 cm Oil on board 2005

40 41 JUDY BUXTON Born 1961 Sydney, Australia 2006/05/04/03 Joanna Eastwood Fine Art, Winchester 1993 Galerie IF, English Graduates, Berlin 2002 Newlyn Society of Artists Members’ Book, NSA Publication 1983 First visit to the UK /02/01 Karl Hofer Geseltshaft, Berlin 2000 Painters and Sculptors from the South West , Messums, London, London/Leipzig, 10RA PG Students,Grassimuseum, Leipzig, Germany 1987-90 Falmouth College of Art (BA Hons Fine Art) 2005/04/03/02 Lynne Strover Gallery, Cambridge catalogue essay by Jenny Pery /99 ‘Post Graduate Exhibition’ Sackler Galleries, Royal Academy of Arts, London Exhibition catalogue essay by William Packer, FT art critic, Messums Publication 1990-93 Royal Academy Schools (RAS PG Dip) London Group, Members and Guests (invited by Ray Atkins) 2004/03/02/00 Hunting Art Prizes, The Royal College of Art, London 1999 ‘Cornish Setting for Interior Landscapes’, Inside Cornwall (June 99) 1993 Married the painter Jeremy Annear Morely Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts, London /99/98 William Packer Review ( FT 20-05-97) ‘New Generation’, Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall 1994 Moved to Cornwall 2003/02/00/99 The British Show & Spring / Summer / Winter, Lemon Street Gallery, Truro, Cornwall 1997 NatWest Art Prize catalogue essay by Brian Robertson 1992/03 ‘Premiums’, Royal Academy of Arts, London 1995 Elected member of the Newlyn Society of Artists 2003/02/01/00 ‘ART’. Business Design Centre, Islington, London (Messums) Royal Overseas League catalogue 1996/97 Elected Newlyn Society of Artists committee /99/98 Frank Ruhmund, review ( The Cornishman ) Awards & prizes 1995 Visiting lecturer, Falmouth College of Arts Fine Art degree 2004/03/02/01 Messums Contemporary (mixed exhibitions), London 1996 Drawing Towards the End of the Century , NSA Publication 2005 Hunting Art Prize (2nd prize) and Poster 1996 Established Chapel House Studio courses /00/99/98 1994 Featured Artist, Artist & Illustrators Magazine (June) 2002 ‘Painters and Sculptors of the South West’, Messums, London 1997 NatWest Art Prize finalist & prizewinner Contributor, Drawing the Nude , Dianna Constance, Apple Press 1996 First prize, Gold Medal, The Worshipful Company of Painter-Strainers Annual Guardian newspaper exhibition, selected by Ed Nite, RA Magazine Solo exhibitions 2002 Adam Gallery, mixed exhibitions, Bath Freedom of the City of London 1993 London Underground poster campaign for Royal Academy Summer Season, with 2002/01/00 Chichester Open Art Exhibition, Sotherby House, West Sussex 2006 New Millennium Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall Cyril Sweett Award, PG Painting Prize (selected from PG students at the RCA, David Hockney and Pissaro 99 2005 Camden Gallery, Chipping Camden, Gloucestershire the Slade and the Royal Academy) awarded by the Worshipful Company of RA Magazine , RA Graduates 2001/00 Chelsea Arts Fair (David Messum Gallery), London 2004 New Millennium Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall Painter-Strainers Who’s Who in British Art 2000 Royal Academy Schools Exhibition, (ex-students) Royal Academy of Arts, London Royal Watercolour Society Award The Dictionary of Artists in Britain Since 1945 , Buckman 2002 New Millennium Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall David Murray Travel Scholarship Lynne Strover Gallery, Cambridge (with Jeremy Annear) 2001 ‘From the Heart’ (showcase exhibition) Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall Creswick Landscape Prize 2001 Beaux Arts, Bath 2001/00 Beaux Arts, Summer Exhibition, Bath Selected Collections 1992 Henfield Drawing Award Cornwall County Council, Falmouth College of Art 2000 Messums Fine Art, London 2000 Kelly Gallery, Glasgow (Lemon St Gallery, Cornwall) Richard Jack Portrait Award Guinness Collection Lynne Strover Gallery, Cambridge 1999 ‘The Discerning Eye’, The Mall Galleries, London Richard Jack Interior Award The Swiss Bank, London 1999 New Millennium Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall ‘Critic’s Choice’ (William Packer, FT Art Critic) Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall Greycoat Plc, London ‘Cornish Painting’, The City Gallery, London 1998 The Oxford Gallery, Oxford Publications & reviews Garden Court Chambers, London ‘Newlyn Now’, The Royal West of England Academy, Bristol Dorrien-Smith, Tresco Estate 1997 Thornton-Beven Arts, London 2006 New Millennium Gallery, St Ives Cornwall, exhibition catalogue, 1998/93/92/91 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London Workhouse Design Studio, Truro, Cornwall 1996 The Oxford Gallery, Oxford foreword by David Falconer 1998 Hunting Art Prize, RCA, London & Newport Museum & Art Gallery, Wales Fenton Arts Trust 2006 ‘Artist Diary’ Cornwall Today (May issue) Private Collections in UK, Europe, Australia & USA 1997 The NatWest Art Prize Exhibition (prizewinner),Lothbury Gallery,London 2005 The Hunting Art Prizes, (1981–2005), catalogue foreword by William Packer, Selected mixed exhibitions ‘Critic’s Choice’ (David Lee, Editor, Arts Review ) FT art critic, (1981–2005) 2006/05/04 ‘ART 2006’, Islington Design Centre, London (Edgar Modern, Bath) The Beatrice Royal Gallery, Eastleigh, Southampton Commissions 2005 Hunting Art Prizes, Royal College of Art, London (2nd prize & poster) Hunting Art Prizes Exhibition RCA, London & Hunterian Museum, Glasgow 2005 Camden Gallery, exhibition catalogue Cruise ship ‘The Crystal Serenity The Rainy Day Gallery (three-person show), Penzance, Cornwall Western Morning News , West Briton , The Cornishman 2005/04 Group exhibitions, Edgar Modern, Bath Cadogan Contemporary, The Cadogan Gallery, London ‘Hunting Art Prizes’ (12-02-05) 2005/04 Chelsea Art Fair and Affordable Art Fair, Battersea, London, (Edgar Modern, Bath) ‘Quality Of Light, Peninsula Programme’, Tate Gallery, Cornwall 2004 New Millennium Gallery catalogue foreword by William Packer, FT art critic 2005/04/03 ‘ART 2005’, Business Design Centre, Islington, London, 1997/96/95/94 Newlywn Society of Artists group exhibitions, Cornwall Frank Ruhrmund, The Cornishman (20-05-04) and (New Millennium Gallery, St Ives) Western Morning News (21-05-04) 1996 The Royal West of England Academy, Bristol West Briton , review (20-05-04) 2005/04/03/02 Group Exhibitions, New Millennium Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers, Annual Exhibition, Painters Hall, London St Ives Times and Echo (May) /01/00/99/98 The New English Art Club, The Mall Galleries, London Pip Palmer, review, Galleries magazine (June issue) Group Exhibition, Tresco Gallery, Tresco, Isles of Scilly, Royal Overseas League Annual Open Exhibition, Royal Overseas House, London ‘Modern Turners’, Living on the Edge: The Guardian (June) 2006/05/04 Group exhibitions, Camden Gallery, Chipping Camden, Gloucestershire and Edinburgh College of Art ‘Masterclass’, The Artist (August) ‘Landscapes From West Penwith’, Hastings Museum & Art Gallery Photography of paintings: Steve Tanner 2004 Hunting Art Prizes, RCA London & Trebah, Cornwall Portrait photography: Eva Helen Edvardsen ‘Critic’s Choice’ (Sasha Craddock, The Times ), Newlyn Art Gallery 2003 William Packer, review, Hunting Art Prizes ( FT 0-02-03) Thompsons City Gallery, London Design: Classic Design Gallery Duncan Terrace, London 1995 Christopher Hull Gallery, London 2003 Catching the Wave, Art and Artists in Cornwall , Tom Cross, Halsgrove Press Print: Rowe the Printers

42 43 Coastal summer Spray 46 × 46 cm Oil on board 2005 New Millennium Gallery