An interview with Judith
Judith Labelle is many things…delightful, intelligent, loving wife, teacher of Braille, volunteer at the Oasis Centre… and…she’s also an artist. She recently shared a dialogue – and her art gallery – with Concinnity Magazine:
“I have been involved in the art world for approximately 30 years – either as a student, instructor or a practicing artist. During that time I’ve worked with people from a wide range of learning abilities and ages – from special needs through to PhD students…from ages 10 through to 80′s.
My background in Philosophy and Fine Arts has enabled me to move freely between art practice and art theory. Although my own work is fairly traditional in content (I especially love to paint flowers with their whole metaphor of living & dying, fullness & completion) it’s not of a photographic nature. My focus is on discovering the ‘essence’ of my subject: feelings….intonation…mood contained within it.
I work primarily with oil paint, in subdued lighting, using fingers and rags, palette knife and paint brushes. The surface of the painting is multi-layered which often leads to a dialogue between the painting and myself. It’s the painting that guides me through to a place where a I feel a subtle cellular hum coming from the image that tells me ‘all is well’…and that the picture is finished.
This has never been a fast process for me. Some paintings have taken years before this happens, but the end result is usually a painting that emerges either through darkness or light, revealing itself to the viewer and inviting them in. These are paintings that do not yield up their fullness in one viewing. The resonance, moods and layers just simply continue.
In more recent years I ‘ve also enjoyed working with digital images. The process is much the same, building layer upon layer creating subtle shifts of mood and tone. The end result of this process is such that it completely loses its digital feeling, opening up a visual freedom where the media does not dominate the content. Again, this is not a fast process for me, an image can take many months – and it’s the same quiet hum that communicates fullness and completion.
If you are in the Edmonton area you are welcome to come and visit my studio. You can contact me through my contact page above.