WARDSBORO — The Wardsboro Public Library's Artist of the Month exhibition for November is a dual display of sculptures by Hugh Joudry and paintings by Jeanne Joudry, residents of Stratton.
Hugh Joudry uses the traditional methods of carving: mallet and chisel for wood and stone. Because of his resonance with the mountains, many of his Druid-like sculptures in wood and stone are site-specific to their natural settings: rock, field and forest.
He says his wood sculpture is made of local maple, ash, and birch, and the stonework is made from Vermont's “unparalleled white marble.”
“The rhythmic shapes of trees I see in the forest, the smell of resin in balsam fir and spruce, the sap of the maple, the interior contours of ash and beech, as well as the majesty of oak are the primal energy that sparks my work,” he explains.
Born in Canada, he earned degrees in science and mathematics and in the bronze casting of sculpture. He has shown his work in Vermont and in New York. Images of his work and a video of the artist in his “yurt” studio can be viewed at this website, www.hughjoudry.com.
Jeanne Joudry says she turns to mysticism in her shape-shifting of abstract form. Her paintings on paper for this show are a response to the enduring rhythms of nature. The paintings contain mysterious markings, intimate close-ups, and color harmonies of forest, brook, and garden.
“For this show,” she says, “I have four new pieces, larger works finished in the past six months. They're all up-close views of nature. I always reference natural themes but paint in the abstract.”
She says her work tends to be small: “I have limited space in the studio and I like working small sometimes, because it gives you an intimate view of nature. I never go too big."
She works mostly on paper, a love from her days as a book designer, and likes the heavy texture of watercolor paper. She took her B.F.A. in fine arts and graphic design from SUNY-Buffalo. Her paintings have been shown in various galleries in Vermont.
Many visitors to the area - and locals, too - know the Joudrys not as artists but rather as the couple who live three seasons in a small cabin on top of Stratton Mountain.
Hugh Joudry writes that in the 1960s, “while living an urban-suburban lifestyle, one I was beginning to see as distasteful, I took on a job as a fire lookout on a mountain in Vermont and stayed for 11 years."
Hugh and Jeanne, now in their 70s, work as summit caretakers for the Green Mountain Club on Stratton, returning to their home and studio in winter to pursue their art.