Judi Getch Brodman is an engineer who
took up painting about 20 years ago. There
is an exhibition of her watercolors at
the Highland Beach Library. Photo by Tim Stepien
An engineer by trade, Judi Getch Brodman has become an accomplished watercolor artist and writer. No wonder her husband, Steve, also an engineer, calls his wife a renaissance woman.
“I paint like an oil painter I’m told — vivid and colorful,” says Brodman, who is retired from her computer software consulting business. “My passion is bright sunshine, dark contrasts from the shadows, the feel of warm summer sunshine, long winter shadows, the vivid purples and blues of late winter days and cold winter water.”
She tries to include a building or structure in her paintings. “I attribute this quirk to my math background. I love the perspective that comes with buildings, adding a 3-D feel to the painting.” Brodman explains. “I paint in watercolors because they are unpredictable, a quality that scares a lot of artists but makes me love them. The paint takes on a life of its own causing bleeds, drops, streams, all attainable only in watercolors.”
An exhibition of her watercolors continues until April 27 at the Highland Beach Library.
Brodman coaches a painting group on Wednesdays at the Coronado, the condominium where she and her husband spend their winters. She also is a regular at a writers group at the library on Saturdays.
What prompted her to write?
“I felt that I had more creativity in me than just being able to paint,” she says. “One day, I sat down and wrote about eight pages of fiction. I handed them to my sisters and girlfriends to read; they loved them, were amazed that I had written them, and wanted to read more of the story.”
Knowing she needed guidance, training and skills, she joined the writers group in Highland Beach. “It forces me to write shorter publishable pieces — like my three-part series about Ireland (which has been published in Ocean magazine). I also learn from the other writers in the group as I read and comment on their work as well as from Marlene Roberts Banet, our fearless leader.”
Brodman, 67, grew up Randolph, Mass. The house she lived in there remained in the family until she sold it two years ago, after her mother died.
“We had chickens in the backyard and a large farm across the street where we could buy delicious fresh corn,” Brodman recalls. “Every once in awhile, a few of the cows escaped and could be found chomping on our hedges in front of the house.”
The Brodmans’ primary residence is in Needham, Mass. They have a place in Stowe, Vt., where they spend time in the summer and they also spend time in her childhood summer place, Wellfleet on Cape Cod — the town she writes about in her novel.
She and her husband bought their Highland Beach condo nine years ago at the recommendation of Steve’s mother, who tipped them off to “a gorgeous condo for sale facing the ocean.” The Bodmans bought the condo without having seen it, based on Steve’s mother’s glowing report, and have wintered there ever since.
The couple takes three-mile walks every day in addition to regular beach strolls. She hunts for seashells and they chat with passers-by.
— Mary Thurwachter
Q. Where did you go to school?
A. I attended a private Catholic high school, Archbishop Williams, graduated from a Catholic women’s college on the Fens in Boston, Emmanuel College, with a degree in Mathematics. I received a master’s in computer engineering from Boston University College of Engineering.
Q. What are some highlights of your professional life?
A. Early in my career, I worked in the space program. As a mathematician, I analyzed the performance of the GE fuel cells powering the Gemini spacecrafts. After that, I worked for a number of companies as a software programmer, a corporate software divisional manager, and in new business acquisition. When I reached the top of the corporate hierarchy, I started my own consulting company and co-founded another, specializing in software process improvement. I traveled extensively, speaking at conferences all over the U.S. and abroad. My most memorable work place was in the Marshall Islands. To make my way there, I flew to Hawaii, then on to the ultra-secure Johnston Island for a refueling stop. I flew from Kwajalein every day in a retrofitted DC-3 to my office on Roi-Namur, a secure U.S. radar installation, at the other end of the atoll. It’s a place and time I’ll never forget. I wouldn’t change one thing in my corporate life — no regrets there.
Q. Were you always a good painter or writer?
A. I wrote for my college newspaper. The nuns asked me to be an English major. I declined — math was my field. I wrote and published constantly in my professional life: papers, presentations, articles and a book. During the years, my personal writing consisted only in keeping journals when I traveled. My only early art memory is standing in a storefront with classmates, drawing in charcoal. I tried my hand at oils when I was in college. My mother and older sister commented that my rocks looked like eggs. That finished my painting career until about 20 years ago, when I took watercolor lessons.
Q. What is your favorite part about living in Highland Beach?
A. Highland Beach has a small town feel about it. I found it easy to involve myself in different activities to meet people. I wrote the newsletters for the cultural committee; I joined the writers group at the library; I have a painting group at our complex. Little by little, it begins to feel like home. My absolute favorite part, being on the ocean, walking the beach every day; watching the changes in the ocean, the clouds, and the light on the water — hour by hour and minute by minute. Some days we see fish, sharks, and other strange creatures.
Q. What is your new book about about?
A. My novel, Secrets of Lemon Pie Cottage — the Gift, is a mystery romance about a young woman, Suzanne James, whose inheritance, a cottage at the outer reaches of Cape Cod, thrusts her into threatening situations she isn’t prepared to handle. As she sorts through her Aunt Patrice’s life in Wellfleet, Suzanne finds herself face to face with the town’s handsome police chief, Jack Hereford, unraveling unsolved mysteries, investigating local murders, running from an unknown stalker and uncovering family secrets maybe best left buried.
Q. If someone made a movie of your life, who would you like to play you and why?
A. I needed a little help with answering this so I took a poll. The results: for my early years, Doris Day — sweet and lively; later years, Lauren Bacall — independent, strong opinions, tall and stately, lived a long, distinguished life; Linda Evans — similar looks, soft-spoken. My thought was maybe I could be played by Meryl Streep — a woman who loves life and lives it to the fullest.
Q. What do people not know about you that you wish they would?
A. I’m really a shy person — uncomfortable in unfamiliar situations — but very good at camouflaging it. I also work very hard at everything I do, be it writing or painting; I’m not satisfied until I’m the best that I can be. I’m dogged, I guess.
Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
A. I always seem to return to the quotes of my father:
“Don’t sleep your life away; you will sleep a long time when you’re dead.”
“There are no pockets in the shroud.” Keeps me on the straight and narrow about what is meaningful in life.
“Don’t wish your life away.” This one was always said when I wished it was Friday and it was only Monday.
“Have no regrets — no ‘I should have’, no ‘I could have.’ ” I think this one taught me to go for it, make conscious decisions in life, have fun along the way … and most importantly, don’t look back at missed opportunities because there are no do-overs or second chances.
Q. Have you had mentors in your life?
A. I learned most of my life lessons from my parents. They worked hard as first generation Americans, providing a secure safe environment for their children. They moved over the Blue Hills, out of the city where they grew up, to the country hoping to give their three “girls” more than they had. They encouraged us to do and be anything we wanted. They valued education. My sisters and I were the first in the family to attend college. My uncles kidded my father about sending his daughters to college: “They will only get married and the education will be wasted.” But my father needed to know that we could take care of ourselves, and wouldn’t be dependent on anyone or anything. He and my mother taught us to work hard to obtain what we want, never take anything we didn’t earn. My mother was our fashion adviser, cook, canner of my father’s garden and shopper extraordinaire for us.
Q. Who or what makes you laugh?
A. Physical comedy makes me laugh: Abbott and Costello, Jerry Lewis and Lucille Ball reruns; old SNL skits with Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin and Gilda Radner — they were a cast to be reckoned with. Weddings, babies … happy occasions, good jokes bring a smile or laugh.
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