During the past 25 years, Judith Dickinson has painted portraits of hundreds of people—including some for celebrities. She’s painted Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of Colorado, and federal judges. She’s also done three commissions for TV’s Judge Judy who once sent her private plane from Florida to Colorado to pick up a finished work for her son’s birthday party.
Dickinson has also painted the African people she and her husband Gary have met on their trips to Uganda and Rwanda and the cowboys and Native Americans they got to know at the South Dakota ranch they visit almost every year. But, no matter who she’s painting, her goal is the same: to capture that person’s essence and to show something more about them to viewers. “I want to convey who they are and what they are about,” she says. “I think about that a lot as I’m painting.”
When doing commissions, Dickinson often works from photographs clients send her to use as reference. Digging deeper can be a challenge in those situations, she says, but she does the best she can. The real magic happens when she meets her subjects face to face and can learn more about their lives.
Read the full article in the January/February 2025 issue.
Reflections
Oil
28″ by 22″
Adoration
Oil
40″ by 30″
