Joan Boyer likes to create a mood, or hint at a story in her paintings. She achieves this using intense colors, strong shadows, unusual skies, trees with personality, or a country road that leads around a bend. She is known for her expressive brushstrokes.
She begins with a “thumbnail” pencil sketch – a line drawing to arrange the composition with added areas of darks and lights. This establishes the primary point of interest. At times there are 2 or 3 watercolor studies before the larger oil painting is started.
Many of her works are painted on location (en plein air) around San Diego county. Joan and many local painters are featured in James Lightner’s Land of Sunlight, 2007. Joan’s plein air paintings have GPS coordinates noted on the back of each canvas, allowing generations to trace her locations even as the land changes.
San Diego has been Joan’s home for more than 30 years. She grew up in Northern California and spent many summers hiking in the Sierras and surrounding foothills. She credits her family with encouraging her art. She studied art and art history at the University of California, Santa Barbara and graduated with a BA and MA. She has taught art in San Diego and American Samoa and now paints full time.
