"Autumn Light, Rome November 2025" Painting

BIOGRAPHY:
Joyce was born in Ontario Canada and presently resides in Rome Italy. She attended a high school for the visual arts in Ottawa and then the Ontario College of Art and Design, and York University in Toronto. For the last twenty five years she has taught International Baccalaureate studio art at the American Overseas School of Rome. Retiring in September 2019, she now works full time in her studio in Rome Italy.


ARTIST STATEMENT :

The City Deconstructed:

Finally, after years of concentrating on the walking figure in the urban environment, I have evolved to abstract expressionism.

The early paintings were of Toronto skylines, where I grew up, and Rome, where I have lived for the past forty years.
Previously my work reflected life with in the city, particularly contemplating the piazza and the streets. Buildings became imaginary, constructed from masking tape, to create the grid work. The walking contemporary figures, I found in magazines and newspapers.
Finally, as the figure became less important, I started to concentrate on the background...an imaginary minute section of the environment.

Confusion, noise, traffic, buildings, graffiti, and the chaotic atmosphere of the urban city are my inspiration. Jackson Pollock and the action painters and Mark Rothko of the color field painters of the 1950’s are at the base of my work.

All works are in oil paint or watercolor. I worked intensely with watercolor for years and it is evident in the way I use oil paint. I like transparency, and to leave evidence of each layer or day's work, either by masking or leaving areas and not painting over them, thus creating the illusion of depth.

The actual physical work is about showing depth through building layers of transparent paint, and aggressive movement of brushwork. The first layers, the chaos of the city, is the action painting. The color field painting is what goes on top of the action painting representing the order of the city.