Judy Richie was our November, 2014 Featured Artist

We are pleased to present our November featured artist: Judy Richie – creator of fine sculpture from the organic shapes of gourds.

Judy Richie standing next to her piece, Au Natural. The gourd sculpture is about 3 ft tall.

In the hands of a true artist, even the humblest of materials can become fine art—a principle embodied by Judy Richie and her award-winning gourd sculpture.

The gourd sculpture of Judy Richie

Gourds are relatives of pumpkins and squash that have been grown since antiquity for use as dippers and containers. But in her Kerrville, Texas studio, Judy transforms these simple fruits into masks, vessels, and kachinas to the delight of collectors nationwide.

Her process is as organic as the materials themselves. “I design directly on to the gourd and it evolves into the finished piece,” Judy says. “Gourds have a mind of their own. I’ll set out to do one thing and the gourd tells me something else!”

The artist’s technique

Judy achieves her designs with decidedly modern technology using Dremels, wood burners, and other power tools to transform the gourds into the finished art. “One of my favorite Christmas gifts was a six-inch belt sander,” the artist says.

The artist also employs extensive hand-embellishment in her sculptural art, including acrylics, oils, wood dyes, alcohol-based dyes, crushed gemstones, and cabochons, among other materials. Many of her creations feature meticulous pine needle hand-coiling, a process Judy performs start-to-finish from pine needle preparation to finished work.

Splash of Color, 12 inches tall, by Judy Richie

The resilience of gourd art

Collectors take note: The dried gourds are not only beautiful, but also are resilient and resistant to insects or decay. “A dried gourd has a hard cellular structure like wood,” Judy says. Prices of Judy’s work range from $300 to $2,500.

Please contact the gallery with any questions you may have. You can read more about Judy and see her works in our gallery, on her artist page: Judy Richie artist page