Although Judy Crane grew up in the West and has painted in many parts of the world, she has always been moved by the Southern landscape and its diversity. Over the years she has found that her plein air work (a French expression meaning “in the open air,” used to describe the act of painting outdoors) and her small studies best captured the essence of the scene. Crane’s personal challenge for this exhibition was to create small paintings, mostly done on location, which could then be translated into large studio pieces that maintained a certain essence of sight. A second goal was to be as passionate in her process about the large paintings as the small immediate works.  Crane believes that while creating work for this show her work and style evolved.  The earliest plein air paintings in the exhibition were done entirely with brush, but Crane’s interest in texture began to express itself in later works. As the body of work evolved, Crane began using the palette knife more, in both the small plein air paintings and the larger studio works.  The overall exhibition shows the development of paintings from “sight to studio,” as well as the development of the artist in the process.
 
Crane, originally from California is a graduate of the University of California. She has painted professionally for over 30 years and has studied with some of the countries top landscape painters.  Believing that being an artist is a life long journey, Crane continues to study and expand her horizons. She moved to Raleigh, NC in 1980 and has maintained a working studio at Artspace since 1987. She is an avid plein air painter, working on location in many parts of the US as well as several European Countries. She has participated in numerous solo, curated, and juried exhibitions, and her paintings are in over thirty corporate collections.  Crane is also a sought after workshop instructor, has made a teaching DVD, and has served as a juror for several local and regional shows.