Judy Prosser

Judy'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.

Her 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 - riflebirds, 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 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, dingos and other animals. With the spectacular colours of the Kimberley to inspire her, Judy 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 prefers to work in Watercolour and Gouache, but also paints in acrylic on canvas. 

Judy 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 life time 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.

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.
         2nd Prize 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 and 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.