Judith Kruger

Judith Kruger is a modern master of the ancient art form of Nihonga, Japanese mineral pigment painting. She paints with pulverized minerals, which are mixed with a warm hide glue (and sometimes seaweed) binder and layered in varying particle sizes onto stretched handmade Japanese paper. She uses a combination of sized and unsized paper to achieve different depth within the work. Metallic leaf is often incorporated within the layered works, reminiscent of the prized byobu (folding screens) of centuries past.



Judith employs a purely traditional Asian palette, which is derived from 100-year cured oyster shells, sumi, malachite, azurite, tiger’s eye and cinnabar, to name only a few. She prepares her materials using the same methods as historic works dating back from the Heian period with strong influences from the Momoyama and Edo periods.



However, being an American living in the 21^st century, she is taking the liberty to “break the boundaries” of the medium. Depth, transparency, beauty and luminosity are her mantras throughout a meditative, multi-layered painting process conveying both the complexity and serenity in our natural environment without direct representation.



Judith currently teaches Nihonga at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is also launching her Judith Kruger Studio fine mineral pigmented, hand-crafted tableware collection nationally, a collaborative project with artisans in Japan and India.



You can see more of Judith's work on her website.