Small paintings can still reach great heights, as Judy Crowe’s miniature still lifes prove. Judy’s twenty years of experience have honed her artistic ability to capture everyday life in her work, in a way that some full-size paintings never achieve.
With cheerful colors and fruit so ripe it could burst, Jubilant Cherries is utterly fresh in both appeal and attitude. Truthfully, it looks and feels as though someone just opened up the windows and let in the summer breeze.
What I enjoy most about this painting, however, is the way that Judy deliberately varies the direction of her strokes, creating structure and dimension to her subjects which make them stand out from the background.
She doesn’t bother to perfectly blend colors either, which adds visual texture to each object and demands that your eyes piece together all the little details at once.
In her second painting, entitled Daisies, organic objects meet meet once again in the form of a crisp orange slice and startlingly vivid petals formed from thick white paint.
All the lively brushstrokes certainly play a huge part in Judy’s work, but don’t overlook the incredible subtlety of that transparent glass vase—its complicated shadows mixing with layers of glass and water is simply wonderful.
Last, but certainly just as delicious-looking, Deliciously Golden is the simplest painting of the three, yet it contains a profoundly elegant composition.
A quickly-painted neutral background and white linen cloth set the stage for a pair of tart green apples. While everything around them may appear haphazard, the apples themselves are carefully painted and offer up a smooth, ultra-glossy appearance that really wows.
Of course, Judy Crowe’s portfolio of miniature oil paintings doesn’t end here. . . check out her website to see many more, as well as a number of pastoral landscapes, character sketches, and larger still life paintings.
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