Painting in 'joy mode' - Judy Nygren

I received my first camera, from my father, on my 6th birthday.  A little Kodak box camera - never looked back!  From then on I became the photographer/recorder of all family events and holidays.  That all became instrumental in directing me to become a creative being.  I was never without my camera.  My passion was in the process of taking the picture - being "in the moment" - not in seeing the finished product.  I still feel that passion when out in the fields of Pitt Lake or Tofino in the early morning sunshine with my SLR/digital camera.  It is absolutely my joy mode!

My passion for painting arose from a similar place.  I have always loved nature and used to snap many visual photos with my eyes while driving or when I happened to be without my camera.  I used to say that I had square eyes.  I saw everything as a finished portrait or painting.  I began painting from my photographs and later took many painting classes with the Federation of Canadian Artists in Vancouver.

I love to capture the light as it falls on a subject to create a focal point and high contrast.  I cannot resist a subject that is "back lit"  where the intense light shines through a leaf or flower.  I try to capture that feeling of pure joy of light and colour in my paintings.  

Over the years, my work has become less representational and has moved into abstraction.    I try to accentuate parts of my work with linear, stylized drawing with the edge of a flat brush over my finished painting.  It makes the painting sharp in contrast and interesting in design which I can't get enough of.  It feels great to draw lines with the brush of varied curves and thicknesses to create attention to detail.  Currently, I am enjoying going back to representation painting from still life.  I'm re-training my eye to "see" exactly what I am looking at and reproduce that image from life.  It is exillarating (sp) to capture just the right value or the warm or cool of a colour to make the subject sing.... once again I continue to live in the Joy Mode when in my studio.