Built in the 1800s as the “great house” for a modest cattle and pimiento farm, the small, wooden home had grown over time, with a series of small additions. In its heyday, it had a schoolroom on the lawn, a grass tennis court, and space for a family of 11. By the time Judy Ann found it, the house was a fragile shell of its former self, with floorboards and ceiling boards missing and a vine threatening to shroud the entire facade. Despite the obvious drawbacks, the artist in Judy Ann fell head over heels for the property. “When I saw the view I said, ‘There it is: my life’s work all around me,’” she says. “I became a landscape painter the moment I moved up there.”

After closing the deal, she had little money left, so the home remained unfurnished except for two mattresses lying atop hardwood floors. None of the doors or windows locked, and there was no electricity or running water. But these inconveniences didn’t bother Judy Ann, who used the house primarily as a studio. “At night the ceilings were covered with the bioluminescence of fireflies,” she says.

She took the renovation process slowly, mending broken pieces of the house while retaining its authenticity. She did have to make a few major changes—such as adding a kitchen. “In Colonial days, kitchens were outdoors,” Judy Ann says. “So I turned a burned-out, abandoned room behind the dining room into a kitchen, and cut a new doorway.” She also installed a row of simple white cabinets and accented them with red details. “It wasn’t popular to use red back then, but to me, it seemed innocent and happy,” she says. “It’s a childlike red, not a grown-up, sophisticated color.”

She decorated the other spaces in equally vibrant hues, from rich palm greens to cranberry reds. “Everything I did I thought, ‘Oh, I’ve ruined the place,’” Judy Ann says with a laugh. “But it just took a while for the eye to adjust.” She used the walls as a gallery for her paintings, and furnished the rooms with a mix of family heirlooms and junk-store and antiques-shop finds. “People couldn’t get over the fact that I decorated my house like a grandmother,” she says. “But now I am a grandmother, so I don’t have to redecorate.”

In her attic bedroom, Judy Ann went for a simpler approach, letting mahogany floors lend warmth to the white interiors. “I love bedrooms that are almost empty because I find them peaceful,” she says. “The few things I have here are precious.” She chose to splurge on a master bath. Previously, she used the guest bath on the second floor, but “when friends came to stay, I let guests use it, and I would climb down two flights of stairs to the first-floor bath,” she says. Finally the prospect of convenience outweighed a desire for preservation, and she eliminated one bedroom to create her bath “of pure luxury.”

Nearly three decades after she bought it, Judy Ann’s hilltop home still has no telephone. With a primary residence in Kingston, she doesn’t worry about burdening her St. Ann gem with modern conveniences. “You can really experience nature here. You’re not cut off from the outdoors,” she says. And with magnificent views from every window, she’ll never run out of inspiration.

ALSO: Slide show: Judy Ann's art