About Joy


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Joy loves to paint. For thirty-nine years she has painted Nova Scotia and captured her view of the world on watercolour paper and in oil and acrylics. She is inspired by the white clapboard houses that are sprinkled along the Bay of Fundy shore, old rocking chairs on porches, flowered curtains billowing in a cottage window and children playing on the mud flats.

 

Joy's studio paintings are developed from on location paintings, photos and actual objects and flowers. Sometimes an idea is thought about for a number of years before a painting is started. The actual painting may take several weeks. In all cases the reality in the painting is Joy's. She happily changes or moves objects within a painting. Often she goes in search of the right bed, quilt or flower garden to create the mood. Strong compositions and a wide range of tonal values are a constant in all of Joy’s paintings.  Her watercolours make full use of the white of the paper and her oils and acrylics are full of rich colours. All of Joy's paintings "sing".


In addition to her studio paintings and when ever possible Joy paints on location. It is an exhilarating challenge to set out, find a subject and complete an entire painting in four to seven hours. These paintings are loose, spontaneous and depict the tides, the lighting and the moment. Besides painting on location throughout the Maritimes, Joy loves the landscape and history of England, Italy Spain, France, Greece, Japan and all of South America. 

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Joy Snihur Wyatt Laking

Born: Owen Sound, Ontario 1950

Studied: University of Guelph, Fine Art, graduated 1972

Lives: Portaupique, Nova Scotia

 

Selected Exhibitions of Paintings (Group)

- Truro Arts Society - Truro NS. - 1980 -2011

- Canadian Nature Federation National Tour - 1984-1986

- MSVU Art Gallery, Halifax - 1988 & 1992

- Society of Canadian Artists, Toronto,ON - 1988 & 1990

- Chez Nous, Chez Vous - Neptune Theatre in Halifax 2001 with Denise Comeau

- Stone, Paint and Clay - Neptune Theatre, Halifax with Heather Lawson and Krista Wells - 2001

- Women Painters in the Nova Scotia Art Bank - Province House, Halifax 2002

- Colores del Pueblo - Frigliana, Spain March 2002

- Colores del Pueblo - The Sign of the Whale Gallery May 2002 with Denise Comeau

- Colores del Pueblo - Alderney Landing Gallery, Dartmouth, NS. July 2002 with Denise Comeau

- Deux Visions/The Two Views - Art Sales and Rental 2002 with Denise Comeau

- Six Women, Six Diverse Art Forms, MacDonald Museum, Middleton Nova Scotia 2004

- Craig Gallery, Dartmouth, “Long Island, Nova Scotia”, 2011

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