Judy Buxton | Summer 2022

This August, New Craftsman Gallery St Ives presents a collection of oil-on-canvas works by award winning painter Judy Buxton. Judy is a Fine Art graduate of both Falmouth College of Art and the Royal Academy Schools in London, and has been awarded the Sir Cyril Sweet Prize, the Royal Watercolour Prize, the Gold Medal from the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers, and The Hunting Art Prize. She lives and works on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall, where she draws inspiration for her landscape paintings from the area’s unique moorland, coast and river. Other subjects include still life paintings of flowers, and dynamic equine paintings which reflect Judy’s passion for her beloved horses. Deep texture, soft colours and the vigorous use of a palette knife are the defining characteristics of her work. This collection includes landscape, equine and floral works, with a particular emphasis on roses, in response to the accompanying collection of ceramics by rising young artist Chloe Rosetta Bell.

“This exhibition at New Craftsman is a collection of paintings from the start of the year. Turning 60 brought with it a lot of change and challenge: a new studio, home and garden. Since the New Year I have worked on a series of paintings of flowers and horse heads. 

Creating a garden over many years has been a natural subject for me and a way of observing the seasons. From the pure yellow and white of narcissi in the midst of a grey winter, to the lush, pink, magenta blush tones of June roses cascading in the garden; their essence, delicacy, and beauty is fleeting and transient. They bloom, wilt and fall, leaving behind little petals of colour which paint themselves onto the ground.  

I have always had a passion for horses, having the intimate experience of breeding and bringing to life these remarkable creatures. Alongside this I worked on a series of paintings of equine themes, from history painting and ancestral bloodlines, to racing and archetypal horse heads, a tribute to the equines’ nobility, strength and grace and our relationship and bond with them.

Reflecting on my life and journey as an artist, I dedicate this exhibition to my mother, a self-taught painter with a truthful eye ….. who put the brushes into my hand.

I paint my world around me, what I love and see every day”.

Judy Buxton