Joanie Winnitoy

Joanie fell in love with Art and English in Junior High with teacher Lillian, in Calgary, but the Senior High teacher was grouchy and she gave up on art, and pursued a career in English, teaching and marking essays for many years, satisfying her urge for color and brush by painting walls and decorating houses. Even before she retired from teaching Grade 12 English to adults in Calgary, and moved to Ladysmith in 2009, Joanie painted and took courses in oils at Chinook College, and Red Deer College, and studied other artists in Bragg Creek. Then the
Island, and a love affair with acrylics, realism and abstraction, at MISSA, Embellish, Iron Oxide, the Waterfront Gallery, plus demos and workshops with the Chemainus Art Group. Then an intensive 100 day challenge issued by the Ladysmith Arts Council, January 1st to April 9th, 2016. Joanie’s work is always at the Rainforest Gallery in Chemainus and, for February, at the Beantime Café in Ladysmith. Joanie is hoping her studio on Jones Road will be on the Ladysmith Spring Art Tour (for the 6th time, April 14, 15 and 16), and she has a solo show the month of July at the 49th Parallel Coffee Shop.

I play with color, texture, form, all canvas and paper sizes, using acrylics and mixed media, painting to music, following an emotion, an idea, a brush stroke, a spatula curve, a roller swerve. Sometimes I work from a photo, but more often I grab some colors and go, wherever the going takes me. I create full abstracts and abstract realities. My uniqueness lies in my wide range of styles and subjects. I believe, with Kahlil Gibran, that “work is love made visible”. I love boats and bicycles, colors, even West Coast greys, cats and quail, pears and poppies and patterns, mountains and misty seashores, suns, skyscrapers, storms, shapes. I love living and painting.