Artist Statement
The source of my inspiration is landscape, a meditative gathering-in of nature’s constant trans-formations. My paintings are of real or partly imagined places in which I seek to develop an atmosphere of quiet and peace, sometimes with an overlay of mystery. Significant inspirations for me have been landscapes from many places: Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC, the Virginia countryside, Aspen Colorado mountains, and the quiet beauty of lower Cape Cod. My current series of tree paintings continues many of the themes of past work; a sense of mystery, and of images altered by time and movement. Trees represent endurance, change, and the ability to cope with elements of nature. My most recent paintings, some of which are titled Trees from a Moving Train —depict the fleeting and blurred visions of tree landscapes from a train window, creating a feeling of images and thoughts passing quickly through our lives. There is sometimes a sense of place, sometimes not. Painting landscapes has drawn me into observing more closely than ever, the increasing instability of our environment, and the impact of global warming. Nature has become tempestuous. I am influenced by the places I’ve been and events that occur in my life, so my work goes naturally through gradual change, passing discreetly from one phase into another. My objective is to evoke an emotion —–an awareness of the natural world.’
I am obsessed with a certain ancient sycamore tree living by the Potomac River. At minimum I have visited it weekly throughout the five years I’ve lived nearby. Recently it crept into my subconscious and I began to paint it. I’ve tried to paint its’ dignity and majesty as well the small deaths and growth, the resilience that is apparent in the face of drought, flooding, erosion, pollution and wind conditions. This series of paintings sometimes include a figure that in different ways contrast and reflect the very nature of the tree. In this group of work, titled “The Gravitas of the Sycamore” I find a microcosm of earth as well as a symbol of our lives.
Bio
Judith Peck is a Northern Virginia allegorical figurative painter who has made her life’s work to paint about history and healing with a strong narrative. She has been awarded by the Masur Museum of Art, the Alexandria Museum of Art, The Washington County Museum of Fine Art, the Lore Degenstein Gallery Competition, the Butler Institute of American Art, and Florida A&M University’s Pinnacle Competition and many others, and shown in the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, Context Art Basel in Miami and The Art of Paper show in New York as well as in major galleries thought out the United States and had numerous solo shows. She was awarded the Strauss Fellowship Grant from Fairfax County, Virginia as well as an International Artist-in-Residence in Salzburg Austria.
Her paintings have been featured numerous times in American Art Collector Magazine, Fine Art Connoisseur, Poets /Artists, The Artist’s Magazine, and the books Tradition and Transformation and the Ashen Rainbow, by Ori Z. Soltes, as well as the Kress Project book published by the Georgia Museum of Art.
Judith Peck’s work is collected internationally and can be found in many private and permanent public collections such as the Museo Arte Contemporanea, Sicilia, the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Susquehanna University, Penn College University of Maryland GC, and purchase awards from Montgomery County Public Art Trust Contemporary Work on Paper Collection, the Alexandria Commission on the Arts in Virginia as well as the District of Columbia’s Commission on the Arts and Humanities Art Bank.
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
Women Take the Walls-Garrett Museum OF ART, IN- Oct 2024
Holt Russell Gallery Exhibition-Ivan L Boyd Arboretum-KS-Oct 2024
Figurative Art Exhibition-Lore Degenstein Gallery, Pa. Oct 2024
Tree Stories-Sasse Museum, CA. 2024 Cataloged
Solo – Crary Art Gallery Museum, Warren, PA Feb. 2025
Solo – Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Altoona, PA March 2025
Solo- Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD Oct. 2025
Smithsonian Natural History Museum-Climate Change Initiative Exhibition Wash.D.C.-2025
PAST EXHIBITIONS
2024 Best in Show Award- Biennial Maryland Regional Juried, UMGC, Adelphi, MD.
Best of the Best-Showcasing the Collection’s Portraiture-Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art-Bedford, PA
Featured work – Portraits Project – Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC. Kennedy Center
Featured work-10th Environmental Justice and Health Disparities Symposium, Adelphi, MD.
Conversation- 33 Contemporary
Invitational-A Matter of Light and Death- Abend Gallery, Denver, CO.
Figure-Touchstone Gallery, Wash. DC.
ArtFields 2024- Lake City, SC.
The Garden-33 Contemporary, IL
2023 First Place Award- Washington County Museum of Fine Arts- Hagerstown, MD
Best of Show Award-A Sense of Place-The Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Augusta, GA
Art x Climate – Fifth National Climate Assessment U.S. Global Change Research Program
Invitational-All about the DMV-Calloway Fine Art Washington, DC.
Signature Art Work Award-We’re Doing it All Wrong- Edward A. Dixon Gallery, Dayton, OH
People and the Planet-Touchstone Gallery, Washington, DC
Discovering the Native Landscape-Adkins Arboretum,Ridgley, MD.
Carte Blanche-Adah Rose Gallery, Kensington MD.
DC Art Now! I Street Galleries, Washington DC.
Holiday Miniatures Abend Gallery-Denver, CO.
2022 Five and Under-Arcadia Contemporary, NYC, NY.
The Frame Remains the Same – Arcadia Contemporary, NYC, NY.
A Charm Invests a Face- Adah Rose Gallery, Kensington, MD
McNeese National Works on Paper Exhibition- Catalogued- Lake Charles, LA.
Final Frontier- Catalogued- 33 Contemporary Gallery, Chicago, IL.
Mujer – 33 Contemporary Gallery, Chicago, IL.
Food for Thought-District Arts, Fredrick, MD.
New Frontiers-Old West Museum, Cheyenne, WY
Presence and Absence- 33 Contemporary, Chicago, Il.
Semi-Finalist-Art Renewal Center selection
2021 Inside Outside, Upside Down, Invitational, Phillips Collection, Washington, DC.
Master Copies/Interpretations exhibition, Long Beach Island Foundation, NJ.
TFAA Regional Painting Competition 2021, Fairfax, VA July
Quest for the Modern Figure, 33 Contemporary Gallery- Chicago, Il. Cataloged.
DC Art Now 2021 – 200 I Street SE, Washington, D.C.
Celebrate Art – MVA Gallery, Bethlehem, PA
Monumental -Sergio Gomez Curates
2020 Celebrating 100 Years of Women Artists-From the Permanent Collection- Museum of Fine Arts Washington County, MD.
Real People 2020, Old Courthouse, Woodstock, IL.
12×12 Show, Gallery 1261, Denver, CO.
Viewpoint 52, Cincinnati Art Club, OH.
The Art of the Nude-33 Contemporary Gallery, Chicago, IL.
2019 Contemporary Realism, Gallery 1261, Denver, CO.
Selections from the Permanent Collection, Lore Degenstein Gallery, Susquehanna University, PA.
Biennial Maryland Regional Juried UMUC, Adelphi, MD. Cataloged.
Strokes of Genius -Circle Gallery, Maryland Federation of Art, Annapolis, MD.
Painting the Figure Now II- Zhou B Art Center-Chicago, IL.
Virginia Artists Juried- Charles H. Taylor, Hampton, VA.
Biggs Body 2019- Biggs Museum of American Art, Dover, DE.
The Secret Life of Birds, VAC, Portsmouth, VA.
The Modern Male-Bowersock Gallery-Provincetown, MA.
Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art International Portrait Show – Wausau, WI, juror Margaret Bowland
Washington County Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition-Hagerstown, MD Juror – Eric Key.
Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, New York, NY.
2018 Beyond, with Golucho and Odd Nerdrum – TIAC Florence, Italy.
Small Works Exhibition, Main Street Arts, Clifton Springs, NY.
Legacy: William Woodward and Students, 1977-2005, Arts Club of Washington, D.C.
Exhibition 280- Huntington Museum of Art- Huntington, WV.
National Midyear Exhibition- Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH.
FULL SUN: American Women Artists Illuminate the Haggin Museum. Stockton, CA.
Alexandria City Hall exhibit for Purchase Award -Alexandria, VA.
2017 Sight Unseen-Abend Gallery, Denver, CO
Alchemical Vessels- Smith Center for Healing and the Arts Washington, DC-March. Catalogued
For & About Women-Frederick Gallery, Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts, VA, Preston Thayer juror.
Art Speaks on the Bay, Mathews, VA.- Jeffrey Allison juror.
30th September International Competition – Alexandria Museum of Art, LA.
The Art of Engagement, Touchstone Gallery Washington DC. Jack Rasmussen Juror.
Women and Anger-Koehnline Museum of Art, Des Plaines, IL.
Being Sentient/ Sentient Being- Wills Creek, Cumberland, MD.
International show-Brownsville Museum of Art, TX.
Regional Exhibition-, Hill Center Gallery, Wash. DC. Claude L. Elliott juror.
2016 Invitational -Transformer Auction-Katzen Museum, Washington, DC.
Pinnacle – Florida A&M University Foster-Tanner Fine Arts Gallery, Tallahassee, FL.
Emulsion 2016-East City Art- Cataloged-Washington, DC. Amy Cavanaugh Royce, juror.
Figurative National Juried Competition, Lore Degenstein Gallery- Selinsgrove, PA.
At the Walker exhibition- Cataloged-The Walker Art Collection Garnett, KS.
2015 The Tallahassee International -Florida State University. Museum of Fine Arts, FL.
YEELEN Gallery Exhibition what’s INSIDE HER never dies…, Miami, Fl.
Arte Américas- Casa de la Cultura- Fresno Art Museum, CA.
Pursuing Justice Through Art: Whistler House Museum of Art, MA.
Coding: Artists and their Creative DNA- Portsmouth Museums, VA
Nor’Easter- New Britain Museum of American Art, CT.
The Artist Gaze- Sirona Fine Arts and Poets/Artists issue, Hallandale Beach, FL
2014 Women Painting Women, catalogued-Principle Gallery- SC.
Femme- Invitational- Silber Art Gallery-curator Laura Amussen, Baltimore, MD. cataloged.
2013 Interpretive, The Portrait Today- Galeria Obra Alegria- San Juan, PR.
Juried competition- Masur Museum of Art, LA.
Florida Museum of Woman Artist- juried by George Bolge DeLand, FL
2012 In The Flesh III Target Gallery- Alexandria, VA.
2011From Motion to Stillness-Invitational Exhibit -Zhou B Art Center, Chicago, IL.
New Waves -Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art Juried by Craig Drennen- VA.
2009 Finding Beauty in a Broken World: The Joan Hisako Healing Arts Gallery, DC.
Learn Promote Defend-Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta, Georgia.
Strictly Painting -Curated by V. Lassman-McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, VA.
In the News, curated by Morley Safer-Pen and Brush Inc. New York, NY
2006 Women Artists and their Social Commentary–GWU, Mount Vernon Campus, DC.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Arboreal- Adkins Arboretum- Ridgely, MD.
2022 Neue Klimt- 33 Contemporary Gallery, Chicago, IL.
2020 One Person Show- Garrett Museum of Art, Garrett, IN.
Beyond the Portrait: Judith Peck Solo, Burgin Center for the Arts, Mercersburg, PA
2018 Hope and History- The Gallery at Penn College.
2017 Gathering Shards -Hill Center Gallery, Washington, DC.
2017 The Distant Shore -Artists and Makers 2, Rockville, MD.
2015 Emergence- Chelsea Underground Gallery, MI.
2013 Judith Peck- Gallery 65-McLean, VA.
2012 The Hope Series-Hoyt Institute for the Arts, New Castle, PA.
2011 Judith Peck-Meyer Metro Gallery, Bellaire, TX
2010 Original Position-International Arts and Artists’ -Washington, DC.
2002 New Work by Judith Peck-Intercultural Museum -Baltimore, MD
1999 Facing History -Dadian Gallery- Wesley Theological Seminary Wash.DC.
1999 Survivors-Swords into Plowshares Gallery, Detroit, MI.
SELECTED AWARDS
2024 Best in Show- Biennial Maryland Regional Juried, UMGC, Adelphi, MD.
2023 First Place- Washington County Museum of Fine Arts- Juror Dr. Mary Morton
Best in Show-A Sense of Place-The Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art- Juror Jeffrey Richmond-Moll
Signature artwork award- We’re Doing it All Wrong-Edward A. Dixon Gallery
2022 Semi-Finalist-Art Renewal Center selection 2022
2020 First Place Award, Painting- A Black and White Affair-Artrepreneur
First Place Award, Real People 2020- Old Court House Woodstock, IL.
2019 Best in Show- Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, – Juror Eric Key.
2018 Phil Desind Award -Midyear Exhibition- Butler Institute of American Art.
2017 Second Place Award- Regional Exhibition-, Hill Center Gallery, Wash. DC.
Second Place Award-30th September–Alexandria Museum of Art, LA.-Mark Tullos juror.
Best in Show Award and Students’ Choice Award -Art Speaks, Mathews, VA.- Jeffrey Allison juror.
First Place-For & About Women- Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts, VA, Preston Thayer juror.
2016 Best in Show -Pinnacle – Florida A&M University Foster-, Tallahassee, FL. Zoe Charlton, juror.
Awarded-International Artist-in-Residence Kunstinsel Program, Salzburg, Austria.
Second Place-Emulsion 2016-East City Art- Cataloged-Washington, DC.
Second Place – Figurative National Juried Competition, Lore Degenstein Gallery- Selinsgrove, PA .
Awarded-At the Walker exhibition- Cataloged-The Walker Art Collection Garnett, KS.
2014 Awarded Brush Creek Residency, Saratoga, WY.
2013 Juror’s Choice Award- Masur Museum of Art, LA.
2012 Best in Show- In the Flesh III-Target Gallery- Alexandria, VA-Jamie Smith- Juror.
2011Strauss Fellowship Grant from Fairfax County.
Juror’s choice award-About Face. Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Art Center, Solomon, MD.
FAIRS
2023 Superfine DC Adah Rose Gallery
2021 Art on Paper, NYC-Alida Anderson Art Projects
2020 Art on Paper, NYC – Alida Anderson Art Projects
2019 Art on Paper NYC – with Alida Anderson Art Projects
2015 Context Art Miami Basel-with Alida Anderson Art Projects
2014 Aqua Art Fair Miami Basel- with Mayer Fine Art
Art Wynwood Miami- Mayer Fine Art Miami, FL
Art Southampton- Mayer Fine Art, NY
2013 (e)merge art fair-Alida Anderson Art Projects-Washington DC.
Aqua Art Miami- Mayer Fine Art-Miami FL. Dec.
Affordable Art Fair NY Spring represented by Alida Anderson Art Projects.
2012 Aqua Fair at Art Basel Miami-Alida Anderson Art Projects-Miami, FL.
2010 Aqua Fair at Art Basel Miami-Alida Anderson Art Projects-Miami, FL.
PUBLICATIONS
2023 The Lunar Codex project- 1200 digitized works of artists being placed in perpetuity on the surface of the moon via a United Launch Alliance (ULA)Vulcan Centaur rocket. NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) by Samuel Peralta
American Art Collector Magazine Feature “Deeper Meaning” March issue.
Poets/ Artist Magazine feature.
American Art Collector Magazine Feature “Stories in the Figure” December issue.
2022 Mark Jenkins, “Gough, Kahle & Peck” featured, The Washington Post-June 24.
American Art Collector Magazine feature “Accessible Art” August Issue
Final Frontier-Catalogue-33 Contemporary Gallery, Chicago, IL.
2021 Retro Portraits-Hashtag Art Magazine feature, May.
Mark Jenkins, “Local artists look back on a year of upheaval in this Phillips Collection Exhibition” featured, The Washington Post August 11, 2021.
Tetrachromat-Hashtag Art Mag, Oct.
2020- Collectors Focus: Landscapes-American Art Collector Magazine, Issue 179 Sept .
2019 -Catalog Biennial Regional Maryland show UMUC.
International Portrait show Wausau Museum of Art.
Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Feature – Contemporary Realism show-Gallery 1261.
2018 -Butler Institute Catalog Midyear show
Catalog- Full Sun American Women Artists Illuminate the Haggin Museum
2017 -Series Catalogue- Judith Peck-PoetsArtists Publication
Sight Unseen- PoetsArtists Magazine Feb. 2017 Issue 81
The Reachable Shore -American Art Collector Magazine, Issue 135 Jan 2017
Idiosyncratic Monochromes PoetsArtists Magazine Issue 85-June 2017
50 Great Figurative Artworks 2017 PoetsArtists Magazine #89-curated by Steven Daluz Dec. 2017
2016-The Portrait Issue PA Magazine feature- Issue 72 Jan 2016
Tradition and Transformation Book, Ori Z. Soltes, Canal Street Studios, 2016.
2015-50 Memorable Painters 2015 Juried by John Seed and Didi Menendez Dec. Poets and Artists Magazine
2014-Cracked and Broken -American Art Collector Magazine Jan. 2014 Issue 99
Interview PoetsArtists Magazine Issue 52 Feb. 2014
Collaborative project with poet Edward Nudelman, PoetsArtists Magazine issue 50 2014
2013-Cover and feature article Elan Magazine- December 2013
Book-Georgia Museum of Art-Kress Project 2013
Feature Article-Catapult Magazine- 2013 Issue 24.
Heroes and Villains Issue -“Poets/Artists Magazine” May 2103
2012-Artists and Their Models PoetsArtists Issue 38 Sept 2012
Featured in the Birmingham Arts Journal Volume 9, Issue 1. 2012Depth Perception, The Artist’s Magazine Oct. 2012
Book-Creating a Veil of Ignorance- Bourgeon: Fifty Artists Write About Their Work –Robert Bettmann, General Editor 2012
Gaze of the Beholder-American Art Collector Magazine, December 2011-Issue 74
2011-Collaboration Issue PoetsArtists Magazine issue 3 July 2011.
Q and A PoetsArtists Magazine Feb 2011 Volume 4 Issue1
2007-Book-Ashen Rainbow- Ori Z. Soltes-Eshel Books 2007
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Museo Arte Contemporanea, International Permanent Collection Sicilia, Italia
Permanent Collection -Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, PA.
2014 -2015 -20167-2019-2020–2022-2023 Purchase award grants from the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities, DC.
Permanent Collection- Penn College- PA
Permanent Collection- Susquehanna University, PA
Purchase award from the Alexandria Commission on the Arts, VA.
Montgomery County Public Art Trust Purchase-Contemporary Works on Paper Collection, MD.
Permanent Collection Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD.
Permanent Collection- University of Maryland GC Art International Collection, MD.
Permanent Collection- Garrett Museum of Art, IL.
Permanent Collection, Mercersburg Academy, PA.
BIO- Judith Peck is an allegorical realist humanizing major societal issues with her figurative paintings. BORN- Brooklyn NY.
EDUCATION-George Washington University, Washington, DC-BFA 1979
Statement
I am obsessed with a certain ancient sycamore tree living by the Potomac River. At minimum I have visited it weekly throughout the five years I’ve lived nearby. Recently it crept into my subconscious and I began to paint it. I’ve tried to paint its’ dignity and majesty as well the small deaths and growth, the resilience that is apparent in the face of drought, flooding, erosion, pollution and wind conditions. This series of paintings sometimes include a figure that in different ways contrast and reflect the very nature of the tree. In this group of work, titled “The Gravitas of the Sycamore” I find a microcosm of earth as well as a symbol of our lives.
Bio
Judith Peck is a Northern Virginia allegorical figurative painter who has made her life’s work to paint about history and healing with a strong narrative. She has been awarded by the Masur Museum of Art, the Alexandria Museum of Art, The Washington County Museum of Fine Art, the Lore Degenstein Gallery Competition, the Butler Institute of American Art, and Florida A&M University’s Pinnacle Competition and many others, and shown in the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, Context Art Basel in Miami and The Art of Paper show in New York as well as in major galleries thought out the United States and had numerous solo shows. She was awarded the Strauss Fellowship Grant from Fairfax County, Virginia as well as an International Artist-in-Residence in Salzburg Austria.
Her paintings have been featured numerous times in American Art Collector Magazine, Fine Art Connoisseur, Poets /Artists, The Artist’s Magazine, and the books Tradition and Transformation and the Ashen Rainbow, by Ori Z. Soltes, as well as the Kress Project book published by the Georgia Museum of Art.
Judith Peck’s work is collected internationally and can be found in many private and permanent public collections such as the Museo Arte Contemporanea, Sicilia, the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Susquehanna University, Penn College University of Maryland GC, and purchase awards from Montgomery County Public Art Trust Contemporary Work on Paper Collection, the Alexandria Commission on the Arts in Virginia as well as the District of Columbia’s Commission on the Arts and Humanities Art Bank.
