About the Artist

Crane has worked as a professional artist for more than 40 years.  After maintains an open studio in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina for over 30 years, in 2020 she moved into her home studio.  Her works are held in numerous corporate and private collections, including the SAS Institute, Duke University hospitals, IBM, Cisco Systems, GlaxoSmithKline, Duke Energy, the State of North Carolina, Elon University, the Greater Raleigh Convention & Visitors Bureau, and many others. She has been featured in several solo exhibitions and has participated in numerous invitational and juried exhibitions.

Early in her career, Crane worked in watercolor and studied with several watercolor artists, including Jean Dobie, Katherine Liu, Carol Barnes, and Judi Betts. She later moved on to pastels and the freedom of using an opaque medium. During this time, she often focused on painting underwater scenes inspired by her 90-gallon aquarium. She said she found it fascinating that she could create the best feeling of wetness while using the driest medium of soft pastels. Desiring to work larger and without the constraints of glass and glare, she moved on to painting in oils.

Oil remains her medium of choice, and she enjoys working in a variety of sizes from 9x12 inches to 4x6 feet. A workshop with Charles Sovek in the 1990s triggered her interest in plein air painting. She has since studied with many other plein air painters, including Kevin McPherson, Ned Mueller, John Poone, Rick McClure, and Camille Przewodeck. She states that her goal in working on location is to capture the scene, light, and atmosphere as quickly as possible, working on small panels usually 11x14 inches in size. Crane credits learning to be compact with a month-long trip to Italy with a group of Artists from the Beverly Street Studio School in Staunton, Virginia. Her love of travel has allowed her to become comfortable using public transportation while carrying all her supplies and wet paintings in a manageable backpack. She has been fortunate to paint while traveling in regions of France, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Judy has also taken art classes at NC State University, Meredith College, and from many other nationally renowned artists. She shares her talents and knowledge by teaching and is a highly sought-after workshop instructor. She is generous with her knowledge and even in a workshop environment, strives to help each student individually as much as possible. She teaches a "plein air" style that is quick and yet deliberate. The focus is on shape, value, color, and design. Her workshops help "loosen up" the "tight" painter, emphasizing what is really important in a painting rather than the details. She has a teaching DVD available on Jerry's Artarama website. She enjoys teaching each year at the Art of the Carolinas workshops, which bring in students from across the United States. She also teaches workshops throughout North Carolina and other areas of the South.

Often, the sense of light in the artwork of professional painter Judy Crane draws the viewer to her paintings. Whether painting a landscape, cityscape, interior, or still life, Crane captures the magical influence of light on the subject before her. This light can be fleeting and elusive, other times bold and brilliant. For Crane, it is the effects of light and the resulting shadows and colors that inspire her to paint a subject. Years of plein air painting have honed her ability to see these effects and to create works that capture the essence of the subject. This emphasis on light and shadow leads the viewer through the painting to the intimate spaces that invite you in and create a feeling of peacefulness.

When asked about the sense of peacefulness in her paintings, Crane reflected, “I am happy, content, and often joyful when I am painting. These are the feelings I hope to convey in my work. Even when dealing with difficult times in my life, I was inspired to paint the beauty and serenity that I desired in my life.  That focus relieved the negative, fearful feelings, allowing me to be in that space of peace.” Her works do indeed draw one in and create a feeling of being present in the scene or subject she paints. The joy she feels is evident in the vivid, yet sophisticated colors that are so much a part of her recognizable style. She works with a relatively limited palette, creating a cohesive array of colors that can be bright and vibrant or muted and subdued, yet always visually connected.