JUDI BREY STRIVES FOR TIMELESS FAMILY PICTURES

Madison Blankenship posed for a photo that artist Judi Brey used to create her portrait.

There are artists, and there are considerably fewer people who can claim to be professional artists. Judi Brey is one.

The Cape Girardeau resident is a portrait painter who works in her south-facing studio most days from 9:30 a.m. to about 5 p.m. and sometimes late at night.

"I don't wait to be inspired," she says. "I try to run it like a business."

Brey works in watercolors from photographs she takes herself. The camera has eliminated the necessity of forcing the subject of the portrait to stay still for hours without moving. It's a good thing, since many of Brey's subjects squirm.

Most are children, sometimes accompanied by dogs and cats.

As a little girl growing up on a farm south of Sikeston, Brey made her own paints from wild berries and egg yolks. She drew her grandparents, and her proud grandmother showed the sketches to people at church.

"I can't ever remember not painting or drawing," she says.

She studied art at Southeast with local legend Jake Wells. "He got on to me for dwelling on the details," she said. "He'd say, Get to the big picture."

It's the details that still stand out in Brey's paintings, their near-photo-realism. She also seems able to capture some telling individual trait of the subject's.

"I try to bring out the personality of the child. Sometimes I do that more than the photo did," she says.

Brey didn't become confident enough to pursue art professionally until she took classes at the Kansas City Art Institute. She began entering shows in Kansas City, concentrating on florals and still lifes.

"I was ignorant of how you went through the process of becoming a professional artist," she said.

When her husband Jerry was transferred back to Cape Girardeau after four years in Kansas City, Brey thought her art career was over.

But she found her career again when someone asked her to paint a portrait of his child.

Many paintings of her daughter Kiley, a Kansas City graphic designer soon moving to London, decorate the Breys' home.

"I have painted my daughter at all stages of her life instead of going to Olan Mills," she said.

Brey calls the day of the shoot to make sure the child is feeling well. She also needs a sunny day because she prefers natural light. Then she tries to make friends with the child, which usually works better if the parents find something else to do.

She takes 20 or 30 photographs. Brey has discovered what works and what doesn't as props. She posed one child on a quilt but the reluctant subject merely rolled up in it and hid. Brey blew bubbles to entertain another child, who unfortunately wanted a turn and refused to quit blowing bubbles for the rest of the session.

Though detail is indispensable to her, accuracy isn't, necessarily. Braces can disappear if desired or missing teeth can reappear. A cat that was late for the appointment can be added on.

These are idealized portraits, perhaps one reason some people prefer them to photographs. Brey offers another.

"A painting is more timeless. I try to create a work of art," she says.

"Even if you didn't know the child, it needs to be interesting to look at."

The prices depend on how much detail is involved and how many people and animals are in the painting. A portrait usually takes her two weeks from start to finish.

The monetary rewards from the paintings are nice, Brey says, but she paints for other reasons.

"I can't tell you the thrill to see a mother's tears well up," she says

"... This is something from the heart that really moves me."