Jul 2026 Issue 18

12 min read

The Urgency of Art Prize 2026
Short Listed - Judy Clarkson

Judy Clarkson was born in Harrogate, N. Yorks and graduated from St. Martin's School of
Art in Fine Art in London where she still lives. Working in oil on canvas, she seeks through
this traditional medium to portray a contemporary vision of the human condition. Often
there is an implied drama in her compositions, the subjects caught in a moment or
predicament. Simple props such as high heels or chess pieces acquire a presence beyond
the everyday; a forest scene becomes dreamlike, drenched in a hallucinatory crimson; the
women in these paintings  are deep within their own being, their images intimate, the
compositions spiralling into resonant landscapes of the soul. The open-ended nature of
these images asks of the viewer to bring their own interpretations and experiences to the
picture. Her paintings are densely worked in layers of oil paint which build the subject,
almost like a sculpture. Although realistic from a distance, in proximity loose brushstrokes 
hold the marks of the brush as if still fluid and in movement. For her, painting is a passion
and a conduit of spiritual realisation.

Clarkson has won numerous prizes, most recently The Hunger Magazine Prize 2026, The
Daler Rowney Prize, New Emergence Art 2025 and The Paula Rego Painting Prize,
Women in Art 2025. And, The Urgency of Art Prize, 2026.

Judy Clarkson, Inside Out, 96x77cm