Judy Lavoie

I’ve been having a terrific time creating small scratchboard artwork, while also exploring subjects new to me. Each of these four new scratchboards is just 3”x5”, the size of an index card. The beauty of scratchboards, and one of the reasons I love creating art on them, is the ability to render very fine details – even at a small size. This characteristic is what draws viewers to my scratchboard paintings, always curious how such precision and exactness is achieved … Read More

“Perfectionist” has again brought me honors. I am excited to announce that I have won a top award in the highly regarded Oak Ridge (TN) Open Show 2024. My scratchboard received the “Two-Dimensional Award of Merit” (which is 2nd place after Best of Show). The juror, David Underwood, said this about my work: “The detail and accurate rendition of the subject in this piece is exquisite. This piece is evidence of great drawing skill along with expertise of the chosen … Read More

A walk through my friend Lil’s gorgeous gardens inspired my newest scratchboard “Summer Hummer.” I had been pondering a suitable painting subject to use some new metallic watercolors. A male ruby-throated hummingbird seemed perfect, with his sparkling emerald crown and red throat. I could paint our summer visitor as if he were hovering in front of a flower to sip nectar; Lil’s brilliant red tubular flowers of “Crocosmia Lucifer” (native to South Africa) gave me the ideal floral reference. A … Read More

With the reference photo on my desktop computer, I cropped it to fit 8×10, as Brenda requested. When I enlarged Violet’s face to study the details I could see that a close up, done horizontally, would make a more dynamic painting than doing her whole body in a vertical layout, especially on such a small canvas. I ran this idea past Brenda, showing her both options, and she agreed. I was off and running! For my commissioned work I choose … Read More

As you can see, it’s not a self-portrait or even a human portrait. It’s my dog Maggie, who is now 11 years old. My reference was one of many photos I took of her the first day we adopted her as a 7-lb shelter puppy. Her innocence fooled us then – she turned out to be the most challenging pup we ever raised. Today she is calm and loving, but she occasionally shows her stubborn and independent streak! Her eyes … Read More

When I display my scratchboard artwork, these are the most common questions I hear: What is Scratchboard? How long does it take you to do a scratchboard? Do you need a lot of patience? How do you add color? What if you make a mistake? I answer all these questions below. My newest scratchboard “Warm Fuzzies,” which I recently showed in progress for several scratchboard demonstrations, is now finished and posted below, with detailed step-by-step photos and explanations to help … Read More

I’ve been using all my art time recently to paint, finally taking a breather to show you what I’ve been up to. My concentration for the past couple of years has been on scratchboarding, which I love. But it was time to change gears and get back to watercolors. As a longtime member of the Tennessee Watercolor Society, I wanted to have at least two new show-worthy watercolor paintings to enter the 2024 biannual exhition, to be held in Knoxville … Read More

I’ve just hung over 40 pieces of my artwork in a 3-month solo exhibition! My scratchboards are featured, along with many of my watercolors, acrylics, and prints. The Art Gallery walls are full at the Rarity Bay Community Activity Center in Vonore, Tennessee. It is a beautiful venue and I am delighted to be able to present my work there. “Making Our Marks” is the title of the show, and it is the first in the gallery to feature artwork … Read More

Have you ever noticed a background in a photograph which has blurry circles of light against darker areas? This is a “Bokeh” effect, and is comes from a Japanese word meaning “blur quality.” Evidently it means than just the blur, it’s the overall effect of the soft out-of-focus background, from an aesthetic viewpoint. I have used this effect in watercolor paintings in the past, and recently saw other scratchboard artists apply bokeh nicely to their backgrounds. So I decided to … Read More

Fame and fortune on a small scale anyway! My new scratchboard “Hillbilly” was juried into the 2023 International Society of Scratchboard Artists 12th Annual Exhibition, among the works of just 41 scratchboard artists from around the world. This is a very prestigeous show with extraordinary artwork (see the Exhibition Catalog online) so I am very honored to be included again this year. But wait, there’s more… Hillbilly received an award as well. It is called the “4:02 Award” in memory … Read More