Joan Spohrer September Artist

Eseential Business

I began seeking a creative outlet in photography, taking classes in college and using those skills through a career in graphic and website design. About 20 years ago I started to paint watercolors. I joined a group of artists who painted together once a week. They became my teachers and mentors, guiding and encouraging me along my journey into painting.

Your Move

Path to the sea

As I sorted through my images looking for reference photos, I discovered I had a lot of pictures of beaches, cityscapes, and street scenes. I realized I enjoyed the challenge of photographing buskers at work, the hectic pace of city life, as well as capturing the serenity of a dunescape. I began to take more of these types of photos in my travels -- taking more pictures of the scenery than of my family while on vacation.

Tidal Pools

It's difficult to pinpoint what drives my creative process or to answer the question so many people ask, "why musicians?" or "why New York?" All I can say is I feel an inexplicable desire to present an interpretation, an impression, of what I see in the world, to reveal the “aha” feeling of wonder and joy sparked by a moment in time – a quiet sunrise, a musician performing in the street, a train approaching the station at midnight.

Though I started and continued with watercolor for almost 20 years, in the last year or two I've experimented with other media, acrylic and digital. These have given me opportunities to explore dimension, new color palettes, and textures, as well as unlimited filters in the digital realm.

Duet

Elkhart Jazz

I'm more of a studio painter than plein air. Like the student who highlights every sentence in her history book, I tend to want to capture every scene in front of me when I travel. I don’t think too hard as a photographer. I simply let myself be swept away by a scene, capturing the emotion and sense of the moment, and later internalize and render it through a painting that expresses the sense I had of something wonderful happening right before my eyes, with all its spirit, pulse, and majesty.

Central Park Blues

I enjoy the challenge of interpreting this vision through the painting process. I like handling the tools and making choices of colors and values. I like adding my own point of view and telling a story, interpreting a memory through my imagination. I like the resulting magic that brushes, paint, and water bring to a piece of paper, canvas, or screen.

I believe I’ve succeeded when a viewer connects with my painting and responds, “aha!”

Porvoo, Finland

Montauk Lighthouse

Joan Spohrer