Judy Prosser developed a deep love of the desert after heading to the Kimberley in the late 70’s, and has lived on a remote station out of Broome for nearly 40 years. She enjoys the solitude and peace found when sitting quietly at a desert waterhole, watching the passing parade of animals and birds that expose themselves to her. The longer she sits the more she sees.

Her enjoyment of the Western Australian wildlife is represented beautifully in her paintings, ranging from crocodiles, waterbirds, brolgas, camels, horses, dingoes and much more.

Judy’s great respect for the Aboriginal people and their culture has resulted in her painting their distinct figures alongside native wildlife portraying the human element as living in harmony with the natural environment, at one with nature.

In the below Q&A Judy exposes a little more about herself.

Enjoy getting to know…. Judy Prosser

When did you first feel the desire to be artistic and realise that you had talent?

My father was a school teacher and allowed me to draw on the blackboard (in chalk) after primary school, while he was busy. He bought me pencils and sketchpads and encouraged my desire to draw from that point on, 8 yrs old. I was always drawing on something in my classes of high school.

Where did you learn your art?

I studied at Claremont School of Art 1976 to 1978, and achieved a Diploma of Fine Art.

What inspires you most?

Mostly nature, little incidents and interactions with birds and animals. I try to have movement in my paintings, and colour is important too.

What messages are you sending to the viewers of your art?

Be at one with nature.

Describe your studio ..

An old transportable building with a huge roof and deck. Tropical gardens all around. My horses grazing around me.

Describe your typical day of creating art ..

I spend a lot of time thinking about what I’d like to paint, visualising the composition and sketching. I tend to work mornings, and do other things in the afternoons. Once I’m painting time flies.

What mediums do you use and why?

Acrylic on canvas, and watercolours. I seem to have an affinity with water; oils seem viscous for me.

What is the process of creating your art?

My paintings are a progression, I learn something new with each one and that leads to the next idea. I work from my imagination, sketch my vision, paint it.

What career achievements do you feel proud of?

I’m just happy that I’m still painting and surprising myself with the images I’m able to take to a conclusion.

What do you love mostly about what you do?

Being able to create images out of my head and see them there on the canvas; realised.

Where can you see yourself in 10 years?

Not changing much, except for the obvious (getting older).

Judy Prosser Artist Statement & CV

Judy Prosser – Artist – Paintings

Australian artist Judy Prosser works from her home, Udialla, an outback station in the heart of the Kimberley. Her water-colours and paintings capture the spectacular colours and inhabitants of her wide travels across this country. Subjects in her paintings include the aboriginal people, waterholes, desert creatures, tidal creeks and the Kimberley coastline. Judy has won many awards for her beautiful water-colours and she has held numerous solo exhibitions throughout Australia. Her work is represented in many collections including Westpac, Paspaley Pearls Pty Ltd, Lord McAlpine, House of Lords, London.

Judy Prosser – Artist Statement

Judy Prosser’s artistic career began at the very early age of 6, when she spent afternoons after school drawing pictures in chalk on the blackboard of the school where her father was a schoolteacher. Encouraged by him to draw, she filled sketchbooks throughout her childhood and teens, with drawings mostly of animals, and especially of horses, her passion. After studying art for three years and attaining a Diploma in Fine Art at the Claremont School of Art, in Perth, Western Australia in 1978, she headed north to the Kimberley , W.A., and on to Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory. In the north of Australia she discovered all the subjects of her dreams; wetlands, rivers and billabongs full of crocodiles, waterbirds and wildlife, and a vast and changing wild landscape. Judy Prosser’s travels across this country have led to periods of painting in Broome and Kununurra (W.A.); Darwin and Kakadu (N.T.); Cairns and Cape York, Mission Beach and Maleny (Qld). She has produced paintings with subjects ranging from rainforest birds – rifle birds, cassowaries, catbirds – to wetlands and desert creatures – crocodiles, brolgas, magpie geese. Her great respect for the aboriginal people, and their spiritual connection to the land, has given Judy Prosser a direction which has evolved into a distinctive approach to painting them. Her watercolours often depict figures dancing freely in the Australian landscape, along with brolgas, dingoes and other animals. With the spectacular colours of the Kimberley to inspire her, Judy Prosser loves to paint the mangroves and tidal creeks, the red dirt of the desert, and the turquoise seas which kiss the the white sands of the Kimberley coastline. She works in Watercolour and Gouache, and also paints in acrylic on canvas. Judy Prosser spends several months of the year ‘out bush’ with her husband, Tom Beckers, trekking with him and his camel team along the Fitzroy River and into the Great Sandy Desert, and camels have become a new passion for her with many camel paintings resulting from their safaris. A lifetime passion of hers is horses, she has several on her outback station. Judy has had many exhibitions, and her work is represented overseas, and in Collections. Over the years she won several Awards and Prizes and her paintings are exhibited in several Australian galleries. Judy works from her home, Udialla, an outback station in the heart of the Kimberley.

Curriculum Vitae

Prizes and Awards

2008 1st Prize Watercolour – BHP Billiton Port Hedland Art Awards W.A.
1989 1st Prize Watercolour – Kimberley Art Prize, W.A.
1989 1st Prize Watercolour – Kimberley Art Prize, W.A.
1986 1st Prize Watercolour – Beverley Art Prize, W.A.
- 1st Prize Overall – Kimberley Art Prize, Derby, W.A.
- 2ndPrize Watercolour – Shinju Art Competition, Broome, W.A.
1985 1st Prize Watercolour – Katanning Art Prize, W.A.
- 1st Prize Watercolour – Tresillian Art Prize, Perth, W.A.
- 1st Prize Watercolour – Northam Art Prize, Beverley, W.A.
1982 2nd Prize Watercolour – Tresillian Art Prize, W.A. 1981 Art Purchase Award – Melville Civic Centre, W.A.
- 2nd Prize Watercolour – Broome Arts Festival, W.A.
- State School Teachers’ Union of W.A. Art Purchase
1979 Highly Commended Watercolour – Broome Shinju Matsuri Art Prize, W.A. 1979 1st Prize Watercolour – Dallwallinu Arts Festival, W.A.

Qualifications

1980 Japan – studied Japanese painting at the Kyoto City University of Fine Arts, Kyoto, Japan. 1978 Diploma of Fine Art (Painting), Claremont School of Art

Solo Exhibitions

2007 ‘DESERT GIRL’, The Cable Beach Club Resort, Broome, W.A
2006 ‘WALKABOUT’, The Cable Beach Club Resort, Broome, W.A
2005 ‘SHADOW PLAY’, The Mangrove Hotel, Broome, W.A
2004 ‘DINGO HOWL’, Yallingup Galleries, Yallingup, W.A
2003 ‘MOSTLY SMALL’, Shinju Matsuri Festival Exhibition, The Old Broome Lock Up, Broome, W.A
2003 ‘SMALL’, VIRTUAL EXHIBITION Judy Prosser Web Gallery
2003 ‘DOING TIME’, The Old Broome Lock Up, Broome, W.A.
2002 ‘DESERT DWELLERS’, Judy Prosser Art Studio, The Old Broome Lock Up, Broome, W.A.
2002 ‘GOING BUSH’, Judy Prosser Art Studio, The Old Broome Lock Up, Broome, W.A.
2002 ‘NORTHERN EXPOSURE’, Pilbara Fine Art Gallery, Karratha, W.A.
2001 ‘NEW PAINTINGS FROM THE KIMBERLEY’,Yallingup Galleries, Yallingup, W.A
2000 ‘THE WAY I SEE IT’, Pavilion Gallery, Cable Beach, Broome, W.A
1998 Cable Beach Club, Monsoon Galleries, Broome, W.A
1996 ‘TRAVELLING THE RED DIRT ROAD’, Tony Gill Galleries, Montville, Qld.
1994 Pearls of Broome – Claremont, W.A
- Kreations Gallery, Broome, W.A.
1995 Kreations Gallery, Broome, W.A.
1993 Reflections of the Kimberley Gallery, Derby, W.A
- Sheba Lane – Kreations Gallery, Broome, W.A
- Pearl Fishers Gallery, Broome, W.A.
1990 Kreations Gallery, Broome, W.A. 1987 Broome Art Gallery, Broome, W.A
- Festival of Perth – Fremantle Art Centre
- Esplanade Gallery, Darwin, N.T.
- Broome Art Gallery, Broome, W.A.
1986 Broome Art Gallery, Broome, W.A.
1984 Tresillian Community Centre, Nedlands, W.A.
1982 Print Gallery, Fremantle Art Centre, W.A.
1981 Print Gallery, Fremantle Art Centre, W.A.

Group Exhibitions

2008 ‘Boxingday Exhibition’, Joint Exhibition with Robert Malcolm – Yallingup Galleries, Yallingup, W.A 2002 The Art of Investment – Pilbara Fine Art Gallery, Karratha, W.A. Artists include:
- Sir William Ashton,
- Sir Charles, Blackman
- Arthur Boyd
- John Brack
- Bessie Davidson
- Jeffrey Smart
- Hans Heysen
- Nora Heysen
- Norman Lindsay
- John Olsen
- Brett Whiteley
- Judy Prosser
1996 Joint Exhibition with Ingrid Windram – Kreations Art Gallery, W.A.
- Direct Sun – Invitation Exhibition, Noosa Regional Gallery, Qld.
- Broome Time – Michael Commerford Gallery, Sydney, NSW.
1995 Monsoon Gallery, Broome, W.A.
1993 Birds of the Kimberley – Durack Gallery, Broome, W.A.
1992 Kimberley Fine Diamonds, Kununurra, W.A.
1990 Kreations Art Gallery, W.A
- Bay Gallery, Perth W.A.
- Palm Court Gallery, Cairns. Qld.
1985 Fourteen Windows on the West – Williams Curtis Gallery, Perth W.A.
1984 Landscape in Watercolour – W.A. Arts council in association with the Fremantle Arts Centre, Touring Exhibition of the Pilbara and Goldfields.
- Western Australian Contempory Art – Guandong Academy of Fine Art,
- Guangzhou, The Peoples Republic of China.
1983 Festival of Perth, Invitation Drawing Award – Fremantle Arts Centre.
- Contemporary West Australian Artists – Holdsworth Galleries, Sydney.
1982 New Works – 30 Western Australian Artists, Fremantle Art Centre, W.A.
- Painters’ Papers – Fremantle Art Centre, W.A.
- Foundation Exhibition of Former Students of Claremont School of Art, W.A.
- Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Exhibition, W.A.
- Association for the Blind Annual Exhibition, Perth Concert Hall, W.A.
1978 Chrysalis – Graduating Fine Art Students, Claremont School of Art, W.A.