Maurita-Hudson-Pastels | thegalleryabq

Maurita Hudson

Biography

My first instructor in art was my pastor’s wife. She taught me how to draw and mentored me in pastel pencils for several years. After leaving art for a long period of time I fell in love with the softness of pastels and the wonderful boldness of color through a workshop with Tobi Clements.

Other instructors have been Alain Picard, Natasha Ishenhour and Denali Brooke. I still love challenges and love painting to worship in my church services. The music gives a freedom of movement and surprise for many times I do not know what I will paint when the music begins. It evolves from the words or the energy of others in worship music.

I have been honored to have pieces in New Mexico Art League, Masterworks of New Mexico as well as New Life City and Accounting Cuts Salon on a regular basis.

Artist's Statement

Creativity runs through every aspect of life. We use it for what most people believe to be visual arts. However, it is used everywhere from cooking a meal, to raising children, to decision making.

As a child I loved to dance and chose to sit with Dance Magazine’s and study movement of the body in modern dance and ballet. I would work diligently to create a movement in dance that mirrored closely the moves captured in a photograph. I spent my senior year of high school in a leotard for five of my six periods of study. Today I will sit on the edge of my seat and be totally absorbed in the movement and grace of a dancer.

Visual art presented a challenge to me as I learned to draw the straight lines of a Styrofoam cube, cone, and the curved lines of a ball. It was boring! My instructor saved me when a Raggedy Ann doll was arranged on the table in the front of me. As I began to giggle and draw she came to life while others in the class groaned and complained about how difficult she was to draw.. To this day I love the forms of softness and motion that I see around me. Our beautiful skies in New Mexico with the billowing clouds are exciting and I will sit and observe them for long periods of time. I rise early to catch the sunrise or watch for the changing light of sunset as it burst forth with boldness of color. I never tire of the colors around me and I am most drawn to the clouds and sunsets for subject matters.

I left art for 30 plus years and was brought back to it with an introduction to acrylics in 2013. Soft pastels became my challenge in 2018. I love the intensity of the pigments and find great delight in learning how to use the hard, pan pastels and soft pastels.