ARTISTS

Judith MacRae

Judith was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia where at an early age she came to appreciate the soulful beauty of the sea and its environs. She was encouraged to paint by her grandmother who herself was an accomplished oil and watercolour artist having briefly studied under Lawren Harris and Jacques de Tonnancour.

As a young adult, Judith completed her B.A. and M.A. in Sociology, subsequently moving to Oxford, U.K. to work and travel. During this period, she visited many of the famous European galleries including the Prado in Madrid, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Musee Jeu de Paume and Louvre in Paris. She found herself most drawn to the works of the impressionists and to modern realists such as Hopper and Wyeth. While in Oxford, she took a drawing course and continued to experiment with landscape and figurative subjects.

Back in Canada, she settled in Ottawa and became both a wife and mother. She soon felt a rekindling of her passion for helping people and entered medical school. She received her doctorate of medicine in 1996 from the University of Ottawa. For health reasons, she was unable to continue in the field so as one door closed, another opened; she returned once again to her original love of art. She enrolled in classes at the Ottawa School of Art and began studying the discipline in earnest.

Judith works in oils and finds her voice strongest when painting the figure realistically with the use of vibrant colour and exciting variations in light. The figure is often portrayed engaging in commonplace activities - a slice of life, as it were. Judith has also painted landscape, many of which were done en plein air. Recurring themes in her work are the celebration of beauty where beauty is unexpected; and her ongoing concern for the human condition.

“Beauty…is an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.” - Kahlil Gibran

Contact information: email: drjudemac@rogers.com or phone 613-558-7443.