Badlands National Park has a new artist-in-residence for the spring season. The watercolor painter was chosen from a nationwide field of more than 30 applicants.
Judy Thompson has been interested in art since she was a child growing up near Chicago. The mostly self-taught Iowa painter credits art education programs in the schools she attended for providing a solid base to her craft.
“I really feel strongly about providing the arts for kids all through schooling,” Thompson comments. “It not only teaches them about how to create art, but teaches them about the creative process that they can apply to any field of study that they choose to be in.”
Thompson says the opportunity to experience the Badlands and then produce art from that experience is what drew her to the artist-in-residence program.
The artist will also spend time with students at the nearby Interior school district.
Thompson is looking forward to immersing herself in her work with the end result being a new perspective provided by inspiration from the Badlands.
Judy Thompson was previously an artist-in residence at the Homestead National Monument in Beatrice, Nebraska.