Judith Draper Martin, 91, well-known fine art painter and beloved teacher, died peacefully in her Red Bank home March 23, 2023. Born in Norwood, Massachusetts, in 1932 to the Draper family, owners and operators of a well-established textile mill, Judy left the more prescriptive New England life of her forebears to follow her heart, pursuing fine arts at Boston Museum School, Rhode Island School of Design, and finally completing her BFA in illustration at Pratt Institute in New York.
It was at Pratt that she met fellow artist Barry Martin, who would become her husband and father of their five children. Settling in New Jersey, Judy continued to honor her creative spirit even amidst the demands of raising her growing family, founding the successful graphic design group Barry M. Martin Associates. In this period, together with her husband, Judy produced illustrations for publishers such as Little Brown, Random House, Glamour and more.
Later in life, as the demands of single-parenthood waned, Judy found the freedom to indulge in her own work as a fine artist. Her portraits, marked by her characteristically loose and playful brushwork and emotive lens, run the gamut from moody to whimsical. It was at this period of time she turned to teaching, first at Guild of Creative Art in Shrewsbury and the Art Alliance in Red Bank, eventually moving her painting lessons to her at-home studio, where she would instruct pupils in the art of painting for the next 14 years.
Judy was a founding member of the Artist Alliance of Monmouth County, showing her work at multiple galleries, including the Guild of Creative Art, Monmouth College, Ridgewood’s Kerygma Gallery, the Zim-Lerner Gallery in NYC and James Yarosh Associates in Holmdel. Additionally, a painting by Judy belongs to the permanent collection of the Newark Museum.
Judy’s students described her studio as, “a place of refuge and inspiration, smelling of oil paint, filled with masterful paintings, eclectic objects, flourishing plants, uplifting music, thoughtful literature, and delicious snacks.” She taught not just the how of painting, but the why, all with the ever-present sense of her infectious humor, and espoused that “in painting we capture the essence of living.” She inspired her students by reading aloud to them from books about her favorite artists, poets and philosophers, and sharing stories about her life and her adored children and grandchildren.
She will be missed by so many of those whom she inspired both artistically and intellectually. And she will be lovingly remembered standing at her easel wearing her signature classic white bucket hat and paint-splattered red apron—with a twinkle in her eye.
Judy is survived by four of her children, Susannah Martin, Norah Burden, Timothy Martin and Elizabeth Spencer, and her five grandchildren, Olivia, Ruby, Isabelle, Oisin and Lilian, as well as her two brothers, John Draper and Scott Draper. Her son Christopher Martin died in 2002.
Services in celebration of her life will be held privately at a later date.
The article originally appeared in the April 6 – 12, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
