Artist Spotlight: Judith Moule
Our next Artist Spotlight for Herts Open Studios is on Judith Moule, a contemporary landscape painter based in St Albans.
Judith came to painting later in life, after raising her family and working as a school secretary. Once her youngest son left for university, she decided to dedicate time to her long standing interest in art, first through evening classes, then an access course, and eventually a Fine Art degree at the University of Hertfordshire. Since then, she has exhibited widely, taught both children and adults, and built a body of work that has been recognised with numerous awards, including the Lady Lamming Award for Best Abstract Painting.
Judith Moule
Judith’s practice centres on the landscape, but not as a literal representation. She works in oils, cold wax, acrylic, and mixed media, building up layers of paint and texture, scraping back, and allowing unexpected marks and colours to emerge. For her, the surface of the painting is as important as the subject, with landscape acting as a metaphor for the human condition.
In her St Albans studio, Judith works in a series, often moving between several panels at once so that one painting informs another. Her days follow a rhythm of early starts, periods of concentrated silence or classical music, and what she calls the “organised chaos” of materials spread around her space. She describes the most exciting moment as when the energy of paint, texture, and mark-making suddenly reveals the beginnings of a finished work.
Her influences include Turner for his abstraction ahead of its time, Picasso for his ability to reinvent, and Hughie O’Donoghue for the emotional depth of his painting.
Hughie O’Donoghue
She also draws inspiration from the American Abstract Expressionists and the St Ives group, as well as from wild, rugged places; from the landscapes of Rotorua in New Zealand to the Highlands of Scotland and the Yorkshire moors.
Yorkshire Moores
Her hope is that viewers connect emotionally with her work, that they see not just a landscape, but something of the human experience within it.
Judith works from her St Albans studio and continues to exhibit across Hertfordshire and beyond. Her paintings are held in private collections in the UK and overseas.
Judith will be opening her St Albans studio at 58 Salisbury Avenue on the first three Saturdays and Sundays in September from 10.30-5.30.
For more information about Judith's work, visit her website www.judithmouleartist.com
