Judy McSween

Charleston, SC

Judy McSween’s abstract oil paintings transcend ordinary perspectives, transporting viewers to dreamlike places. She works from realism, taking an image and deconstructing the composition into sweeping curves of color, unexpected angles, and smooth planes. Painting lines and scraping through layers of color to find pathways, arteries or roots, she leads viewers through her paintings to spaces infused with light and joy. That light, just beyond the horizon, spilling into a field, or captured for a split second along an edge, is Judy’s signature. Her style combines delicately blended brushwork with intuitive palette knife marks, making her paintings lively and familiar.



Influenced by the underwater abstracts of Bob Mazur, her painting professor at Bowling Green State University, Judy draws inspiration for her own work from places she’s lived, from her childhood home in Ohio to her home in Charleston to our National Parks. She visits them as often as she can steal away.

Artist Website

judymcsween.com