‘Huntington Gardens’

Featured on the cover of The Pen Woman, Summer 2026 (oil, 20×20)

Jude Tolley, Huntington Gardens
Judith Tolley, Santa Clara County Branch

‘Honoring Nature and Life’

By Lucy Arnold, Art Editor

Jude Tolley, Half Moon Bay oil 16x20
Oil paintings by Jude Tolley. Clockwise from top left, “Half Moon Bay” (16 x 20)

One of Judith “Jude” Tolley’s earliest memories is of hearing her father’s and grandfather’s pens making calligraphy marks on paper. Always attracted to the sense of awe and to story, she used paper from their studios to write and draw her own children’s books.

A Santa Clara County Branch member, Tolley obtained a degree in painting and printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. She later studied portraiture with Danni Dawson and Nelson Shanks and sculpture with Bruno Lucchesi. In addition to her painting career, she worked on five animated
feature films at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, from 1995 to 2002.

Jude Tolley, Sho Wants to Be a Doctor oil 20x16
“Sho Wants to Be a Doctor”, oil (20 x 16).

Her art work inspires a sense of “the moment.” Even when painting a portrait, she offers a glimpse of connection and interaction with her subject. Her work, mostly in oil and acrylic, honors nature and life.