OC Mag 01-22

Judy Thompson’s
watercolor works of
art grace the walls of
not only her Orange
City home, but several
N’West Iowa hospitals
and clinics, numerous
art galleries, and even
the book covers for the
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Pioneer Girl project
by the South Dakota
Historical Society Press.
sport — skeet shooting — so I went out
to the range to learn all about it and get
some photos. There’s always something
interesting going on to paint.”
She’s also done artwork for Orange
City’s Tulip Festival as well as a historical
railroad scene for the city of Alton.
Those projects started building her
artistic reputation in the area, something
she continues to build on with
every new work of art.
“I had lived here quite awhile before
I started painting. Even now people
say, ‘I had no idea you painted!’”
Thompson said.
Turns out her series had struck a the arts in the healing process and are
chord and they wondered if she would committed to working with area artists
be interested in creating another series and using original art in their facilities,”
for one of their upcoming projects. Thompson said. “It is so rewarding to
“They were working on the autobiography
of Laura Ingalls Wilder. It had and comforting process.”
have my artwork as part of the healing
never been published, so the society Plenty of commissions come from
had decided to do that and I got a call closer to home as well.
from the editor asking if I would be interesting
in doing illustrations for the ects have included skeet shooting and
A couple of the more unique proj-
book covers.”
a missing barn.
So far three of the autobiography’s “One person wanted a painting
four volumes have been published, with of their barn but it already been destroyed.
So they found a video taken
each cover depicting a different season
on the prairie.
where a guy is talking and the camera
Another rewarding project for pans the background and I ended up
Thompson has been her work with the taking it to someone who could extract
healing arts ministry of the Sanford and stills from the video so I could paint it,”
Avera Health Systems.
Thompson said. “Another person wanted
me to do a painting of his “One of their missions is to share
favorite
WATERCOLOR ON THE WEB
Interested in seeing more of Thompson’s work, or commissioning a piece of
your own? Check out her website www.judythompsonwatercolors.com for
more information on past and current projects and classes.
Teaching
As she made the art exhibition
rounds, Thompson soon found herself
being asked if she taught classes or gave
lessons.
With a teaching background from
some of her previous jobs, she decided
to start taking on a couple of students
at a time.
Thompson also accepted a position
as a teaching artist with the South Dakota
Arts Council.
“For a while I traveled, especially to
underserved areas, to teach art, which
was really fun,” Thompson said. “Many
of the kids didn’t even have access to
art materials in those areas, so they
were really enthusiastic students.”
She currently has two classes scheduled
at the Orange City Library this
winter and spring and thoroughly
enjoys passing on the joy of art to her
students.
“I never grow tired of the excitement
students express when they start exercising
their creativity,” Thompson said.
“The fun is in the journey and creating
a great piece of art is just frosting on
the cake!”
SPRING 2022 | OC MAGAZINE 21