Jude Nelson Freeman is a contemporary landscape artist currently based in the UK from where she travels widely. Her paintings are representations of encounters with enigmatic places. She is attracted to wilderness and has a particular affinity with the Australian landscape. Her fascination with forest floors, dry river beds strewn with gums and rocks, canyons and pools of captured water reflecting an intense sky, inspires her paintings. Leaning towards abstraction, marks might suggest the bend of a tree, light on a rock or ripple on water, and colour is seen in a palette recognizably hers. The juxtaposition of tranquility and vitality is ever present.
“I’m interested in experiencing a moment in time of a place that has existed for millennia, absorbing its compositions and colour. I immerse myself, with empathy for the peoples who have passed this way over time and what it meant to them. A reverie that finds colour and form, texture and line to enrich the experience of place.”
My paintings range from large oils and mixed media on canvas to smaller pieces on paper or board using pastel and gouache. I like to escape, and tend to wander until I come across a place that draws me in. A place of unique raw beauty and an atmosphere that encourages me to stay for a while. I may sketch and take photographs but mostly I give myself space to be absorbed and tuned into it. Later, in my studio, I can reconnect with that time spent and begin to paint. I lay down broad shapes and subtle colour before developing the forms further, layering bold and muted colour to enrich the palette. The application and scraping back of paint allows the painting to evolve while intuitive gestural marks dart across the surface describing movement and vitality. The paintings have texture and an adept use of colour which draws the eye across the canvas.