Judy Wurtz
Expressive Painting
Tucson Arizona

I did not discover my love for art until after I graduated from the University of Montana with a degree in Social Welfare. I was putting my first husband through graduate school, had done some drawing and wanted to explore so I took classes in drawing, 2 dimensional design and painting. I was in love! Unfortunately, I was also working full time and continued to do so for the next 30 years. Still, I was able to sneak in an occasional workshop and continued drawing and painting as I could. I took a wonderful workshop at the Boston Museum of Fine Art, explored pen and ink drawings while working for 5 years in Bogota, Colombia but gradually painted less and less as the demands of work and family increased. I  moved to San Diego in 1986 and had not done any painting in 10 years when, in the year 2000, I found the teacher under whose tutelage I would flourish.. Enrolling in life drawing classes at Cuyamaca Community College, Debra Babylon taught me to see the line with my fingers and follow the flow of the line with siingle, long strokes, as it curves in and around the human body. Painting classes with Debra  were challenging expeditions into the world of color, expressive brush strokes and experiments with medium and composition. In 2001, I was accepted into my first juried expedition in El Cajon, California where I won first place in oils. Still working full time, it took several years to produce the work that would get me into another juried show but, again, I won first place, this time in mixed media.

In 2005 I retired and moved to Tucson to pursue art as my second career. In the past 2 years, I have shown my work at the Stone Gallery (First Light Creative Arts Center) here in Tucson, the Tubac Center of the Arts in Tubac and the 8th Annual Artlink Juried Exhibition in Phoenix where I won a juror's award. I am currently serving as President of the Southern Arizona Arts Guild and have exhibited in many of their shows as well.

 

Shows to date:

Juried Shows:

     San Diego: 

            El Cajon Art Association January Show, January, 2000

            East County Art Association January Show, January, 2004

            Clairmont Art Guild Spring Show, March, 2004

            Masters of the Moment, May, 2004

    Arizona:

           Artlink 8th Annual Juried Exhibition, December, 2005

           Members' Juried January Show, Tubac, January, 2006

          

           First Light Creative Center, Stone Gallery Tucson, AZ

           Atelier Gallery, September 2 - October 9, 2005, Tubac Center of the Arts Tubac

           Juan Valdez Main Library Tucson, AZ

           Murphy Gallery, Tucson

           Desert Museum Art Institute Gallery