Judith Reeve has pursued her professional career as an artist, maintaining her painting studio for over thirty years. Many of her paintings reside in public, corporate, and private collections. Having studied theater design and philosophy as an undergraduate at Fordham University, Reeve went on to pursue postgraduate studies in figure drawing and oil painting at the Lyme Academy of Fine Art, under the guidance of Deane G. Keller and Dan Gheno. Awarded the John Stobart Fellowship and the Platte Clove Artist in Residency among other honors, Reeve was commissioned by the Yale China Association to paint a portrait of entrepreneur Yung Wing, a copy of which was provided to the President of China, Hu Jintao. Upon leaving the Academy, along with painting excursions to Italy and the American West, Reeve began weekly visits to the Robert Henri Papers at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library to study and apply Henri’s vast insights regarding color into her painting practice. Reeve has lectured on The Color Investigations of Robert Henri at Yale University, at the conference Robert Henri: A New Look at The Robert Henri Museum and Art Gallery, and the Lyme Academy of Fine Art.
The Color Investigations of Robert Henri, Volumes 1 and 2, explores the intersection of three crucial books that teach painters a thorough understanding of color: The Art Spirit by Robert Henri, The Painter's Palette by Denman Ross, and The Gist of Art (also released as On Drawing and Painting) by John Sloan. The Color Investigations of Robert Henri explores Henri’s intensive use of various set palette designs. Henri experimented with many set palettes, investigating the optical effects of color and the power of color arrangements to evoke an emotion in the viewer. Henri’s color investigations explore M.E. Chevreul’s concept of simultaneous contrast, H.G. Maratta’s spectrum palettes, and Denman Ross’ theory of cross-mixing and color temperature control. In Volume 2, Reeve displays many pages from Henri’s archive showing Henri’s process of investigation and paintings that relate to that study. Reeve also demonstrates each palette design in practical terms, providing the artist with tools to pursue each palette further. These investigations are interspersed with meditations on the role of the artist in society and the creative nature of image-making.
Reeve is an adjunct assistant professor of drawing and design at SUNY Sullivan and has taught painting workshops at the Woodstock School of Art. She teaches students the intricacies of color and palette design privately out of her studio and globally through video conferencing. Residing in the Catskill Mountains, along with her figurative and portrait work, Reeve paints plein air works of the rugged rural farmlands and the reaches of the Upper Delaware River watershed throughout the four seasons. Reeve has written about the practice of painting and her artistic journey for over fifteen years at www.attentiveequations.com.
