Judith Yarrow was born in 1953 at Jordans in Buckinghamshire. She studied Art and trained as a teacher at Homerton College, Cambridge. She then taught Traveller children and worked as a social worker in London before moving to Wales, to live and work on a farm with her partner Tony, where they had their first child.
In 1990 she moved to Oxfordshire and when the youngest of their 4 children started school, she went back to study for a Fine Art Degree at The Mid Warks College of Art and Design. Judith now lives and works in Chipping Norton
She has had solo exhibitions at The Theatre Gallery, Chipping Norton, The West Ox Arts Gallery, Theatr Ardudwy Harlech, Wells Museum Somerset, The Chapel gallery Wiveliscombe, The Blender gallery, and for Oxfordshire Artweeks.
Other exhibitions include:
The Stour Gallery, Shipston-on-Stour
Parkfields Gallery, Ross-on-Wye
Anderson Gallery, Burford
Handel House Gallery, Devizes
Ingleby Gallery, Derbyshire
The Gallery at Newington House, Charlbury
Badcock's Gallery, Newlyn
The Whitehouse Gallery. Kirkcudbright
John Radcliff Hospital, Oxford
ART 2 (shortlisted)
OVADA Gallery, Oxford
Beldam Gallery, Brunel University
Nov 2009 - prize-winner Banbury 400 open
Statement:
My work is a physical exploration of the way different media interact with different surfaces and with each other.
The inspiration for my landscapes is from the walking I do, often in remote areas. I like looking down from high mountains, especially in the area around Dolgellau and the Mawddach Estuary, but also other mountains and cliff tops that give you space and height and views of ridges and valleys or far horizons. Light and dark is a constant theme in my work.
For the last couple of years my work has focused on Islands, including Skomer, Ramsey, Coll, Orkney and Rathlin.
I have recently completed a visual investigation of Rathlin Island, which lies off the coast of Northern Ireland between Ireland and Scotland, where I walked and painted in summer and winter. This project included a book 'Looking Across', of the views you see looking away from the Island.
I have just (May 2010) finished a body of work exploring dementia through the imagery of my mother's nursing home garden. These paintings form the basis for a new limited (30) edition book . Archways, gateways. doorways, pathways and glimpses through, form the structure of the book. There will be a display of the work at an international conference on dementia in London in October 2010.
In 2005 I was involved in a project with writer Shirley Toulson and bookmaker Ama Bolton. We made a pilgrimage to find the places C19th visionary landscape painter Samuel Palmer painted in North Wales and The South West. I have done a series of paintings based on my own response to these places. These paintings were shown at Harlech and in Wells and Wiveliscombe, to mark the bicentenary of Palmer's birth and ran concurrently with the British Museum exhibition of Palmer's paintings. Two limited edition books illustrated with my paintings are available, which were companions to these exhibitions. A selection of these paintings were included in an exhibition at the Ovada Gallery, Oxford: Quest – Artist as Pilgrim, in association with The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
I was involved in a project at the National Trust property, Chastleton House, to paint an object or room. The paintings were exhibited in the house for Artweeks. I was one of 3 artists asked to respond visually to music composed to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Artweeks, with an exhibition and concerts at the Jaqueline du Pre Music Building in Oxford.