Judy Nimtz: Intermundium
September 11 - October 9, 2021
Intermundium: space between worlds.
In the summer of 2019, I traveled to Ireland for an extended painting trip, renting a cottage for a month on the rugged Sheepshead Peninsula in West Cork, and then driving the circumference of the island for more exploration and painting. Along with my husband, also a painter, I’ve been going abroad to paint for many years to focus on plein air. This trip was different: it was the first time where I planned on gathering inspiration and taking references for my figurative work.
In my figure paintings I veer from strict naturalism toward the poetic, emphasizing minimal environments, lost edges, and transparent passages. My flesh palette is purposefully high-key and desaturated giving my figures a marble-like sense of solidity while also embodying the ethereal. I hoped Ireland would evoke the poetic and ethereal imagery I seek in my work. My hopes were realized in the megalithic sites and the vast landscape of West Cork—I saw sleeping dragons in the stony hillsides, and felt I was straddling different ages when standing before the ancient stones. I returned with a bounty of references and studies from life to begin my work.
As I worked the long hours in the studio during the pandemic, these paintings of Ireland served as an escape from current affairs of the world, and at the same time forced me to think deeper about issues such as my identity. A smaller work, of a single standing stone for example, would serve as an escape—I loved to get lost in building up the textures layer by layer. Or I could escape into the ancient stone circles and imagine a connection to a culture long disappeared. Then there was me. I’m the person in all these figurative paintings, and I spent countless hours staring at myself. In past work I am just one of many muses for any given series, with the overall feeling always outweighing portrait likeness. I’m pretty good at separating me from my painted image, but this time it was harder. I found myself thinking more about my own identity – how I see myself vs. how the world sees me. I am of mixed race—neither fully in one world nor the other. I wondered if I would lose my culture when my mom (the clear link to my Chinese heritage) is gone. This brought me, in one painting, to incorporate her features into my own. In other works, I found my technique of obscuring the lines of the dress with overlapping clouds taking on new meaning, expressing the veiled complexity of who I am.
Ireland has always had a magical hold on me. Since I was young and immersed in fantasy books, I often pictured them taking place in lands that looked like Ireland. I’m one-fourth Irish, and though I wasn’t brought up with a personal connection to that culture, it exerts a mythic pull on me. The hours spent creating this body of work has bridged my imagination with the actual power and beauty of this land.
Judy was born in Taipei, Taiwan and grew up in Hawai’i. While attending the University of Hawai’i she studied art as well as geology and Hawaiian studies where she expanded her love of nature and understanding of her home. She then transferred to the Art Institute of Southern California for a more formal art education. After receiving her BFA, she attended Cal State University – Fullerton’s MFA program before completing her MFA at Laguna College of Art & Design. When Judy’s not in her studio she combines her love of travel and art by plein air painting around the world, her native Hawai’i and adopted home of Venice Beach.
In the summer of 2019, I traveled to Ireland for an extended painting trip, renting a cottage for a month on the rugged Sheepshead Peninsula in West Cork, and then driving the circumference of the island for more exploration and painting. Along with my husband, also a painter, I’ve been going abroad to paint for many years to focus on plein air. This trip was different: it was the first time where I planned on gathering inspiration and taking references for my figurative work.
In my figure paintings I veer from strict naturalism toward the poetic, emphasizing minimal environments, lost edges, and transparent passages. My flesh palette is purposefully high-key and desaturated giving my figures a marble-like sense of solidity while also embodying the ethereal. I hoped Ireland would evoke the poetic and ethereal imagery I seek in my work. My hopes were realized in the megalithic sites and the vast landscape of West Cork—I saw sleeping dragons in the stony hillsides, and felt I was straddling different ages when standing before the ancient stones. I returned with a bounty of references and studies from life to begin my work.
As I worked the long hours in the studio during the pandemic, these paintings of Ireland served as an escape from current affairs of the world, and at the same time forced me to think deeper about issues such as my identity. A smaller work, of a single standing stone for example, would serve as an escape—I loved to get lost in building up the textures layer by layer. Or I could escape into the ancient stone circles and imagine a connection to a culture long disappeared. Then there was me. I’m the person in all these figurative paintings, and I spent countless hours staring at myself. In past work I am just one of many muses for any given series, with the overall feeling always outweighing portrait likeness. I’m pretty good at separating me from my painted image, but this time it was harder. I found myself thinking more about my own identity – how I see myself vs. how the world sees me. I am of mixed race—neither fully in one world nor the other. I wondered if I would lose my culture when my mom (the clear link to my Chinese heritage) is gone. This brought me, in one painting, to incorporate her features into my own. In other works, I found my technique of obscuring the lines of the dress with overlapping clouds taking on new meaning, expressing the veiled complexity of who I am.
Ireland has always had a magical hold on me. Since I was young and immersed in fantasy books, I often pictured them taking place in lands that looked like Ireland. I’m one-fourth Irish, and though I wasn’t brought up with a personal connection to that culture, it exerts a mythic pull on me. The hours spent creating this body of work has bridged my imagination with the actual power and beauty of this land.
Judy was born in Taipei, Taiwan and grew up in Hawai’i. While attending the University of Hawai’i she studied art as well as geology and Hawaiian studies where she expanded her love of nature and understanding of her home. She then transferred to the Art Institute of Southern California for a more formal art education. After receiving her BFA, she attended Cal State University – Fullerton’s MFA program before completing her MFA at Laguna College of Art & Design. When Judy’s not in her studio she combines her love of travel and art by plein air painting around the world, her native Hawai’i and adopted home of Venice Beach.
