Early Work

“Old English Village: Isle of Wight, England” – NFS
Oils on canvas, image from a calendar. I painted the English Village in 1980, from wall calendar photo. It was started in class toward the end of the one semester art class I took at a local community college. Billie Merlino, a local artist, was the teacher.

“The Vulcan” -NFS
Watercolor by Judy Oberto, from black & white image
in Seattle newspaper. This was one of the first watercolors I have done. I painted it from a B&W image I found it in magazine section of the Seattle PI, a local newspaper. I added the colorful “fog” because I didn’t like the way I had painted it at the waterline – the fog covered my mistake, but I like the decision to add pastel colors to the fog – it makes it a very atmospheric composition. A few years ago I reframed it, and in the process moved the boat off dead center as it was.

The remainder of these photos of paintings are images of paintings I have done while teaching myself to paint. This is my very first watercolor – I painted it because I needed some artwork on the walls of our newly remolded rec-room. We were about to have a party for a retiring friend of mine in that space and the walls looked just too empty. I didn’t know anything about what kind of paper or paints to use, so it has faded noticeably and the paper buckled badly, but is still famed and hangs my daughter’s house.

The image below is an acrylic painting I did from a calendar image for my in-laws when they lived in Arizona. The scene is from Sedona AZ, Leila loved that area. Interestingly, I just got an email a couple of days ago, April 9, 2023, from someone in Seattle who’s son has this painting and wanted to know where that scene is. She described it and then sent me the image on the left. I found my original photo of what it looked like when I painted in in 1981. It’s either faded or maybe it’s just a glare from the way the photo was taken. It’s nice to hear about someone actually still having and enjoying a painting I did from so long ago.

This cat was a gift for a disabled man commissioned by his mom, a gal I worked with. He loved he cat and they were afraid of losing the cat and Jimmy might not understand, so I painted this for them.

This is a mural I was asked to design and paint at Lowell School in Seattle WA. The ESL (English as a second language) classes were held in that old basement girls gymnasium. The dragon was 46 feet long, ending in a curled up tail on the small adjoining wall. I decided to paint the teaser in the middle of the elevator doors so it had the appearance of movement. Teasers are a decorative ball on a stick that leads the dragon through parade routes. I painted two other murals on the main floor of the same school.

The Sandwich on the sandwich board was for a store in China Town in Seattle WA. I also painted the new name and logo on the shop’s storefront windows. I did that again for a new owner a couple of years later. I also painted new logos on three sides of a panel truck for another business.