Looking Up
October 7 - November 4
Free
Looking Up
Judy Buckley
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 7 | 3-5pm
My collection is entitled Looking Up. It is my way to pay homage to the sky that I have always loved and personal belief that there is ‘something wonderful above’ and life has so much to offer us. Even as a child, I was graciously allowed by my parents to paint clouds on ceilings and landscapes on bedroom walls.
These works are my response to landscape, particularly the sky, as a metaphor for life. Yes, with all the uncertainty, ever changing and uncontrollable qualities, the sky possesses a beauty that is powerful and calming to my soul. We can choose to confront it daily or ignore it as we do our own possibilities and struggles. It is a gift given and one to appreciate today as it will never be the same tomorrow.
I hope you find a moment of joy while viewing them.
I am grateful to be able to share my work in the Solley Theater Lobby. The Arts Council of Princeton has enlightened me as an artist with classes, lectures, and community events. As an art teacher at PHS, it has also been an inspiration and learning space for my students.
About Judy Buckley
My work is driven by my quest to evoke a feeling or mood of a moment. I invite the viewer to participate in the perceptual process of putting themselves in the scene and ‘feel’ the moment, the time or place in their own unique way. My goal is to convey an experience of certain aesthetics, such as a splash of color, a painterly brush stroke or an inquisitive shape, rather than a literal narrative experience. My pieces revolve around a play of observation, responding and memory.
Many times, I feel painting reflects life. Always striving to simplify, be present, understand relationships and find the joy! As a painter, I describe myself as continually ‘learning to see’. I believe in purposeful play, process, responding and practice…and more practice! As Georgia O’Keefe says in her most recent show at MOMA ‘To See Takes Time, “it takes time…” Painting and learning to see is an everyday evolving process. Most of my paintings evolve from ‘plein air’ sketches, gouache or watercolor studies which then continue into larger works in the studio. I am constantly looking to simplify the complexities of a landscape. Currently, I’m responding to the values of color and color relationships and the nuances of light. It has brought me mostly to the mystery of the sky.
Painting allows me to honor the landscape by getting lost in the moment of mixing a beautiful color, using gestural brush strokes, and just letting life pause for a time.
As a child and still as an adult, I have always felt a sense of peace either at the beach or an open field. A place of wonder. I hope you find your own sense of wonder and peace while viewing my work.
I am represented by two wonderful galleries in New Jersey: CG Gallery in Princeton and Main Street Gallery in Manasquan. I live in Cranbury and have been having fun teaching at Princeton High School for the past 19 years. I paint in New Jersey and Colorado both on location and in the studio.
Past exhibits include: One woman Show in West Hampton, NY, group shows at Elarslie Museum in Trenton, NJ, Gourgaud Gallery, West Windsor Arts Council, Arts Council of Princeton, Cranbury Station Gallery, and Artjam for Homefront in Princeton.
