Joy Collier – California Landscape Artist – painting with acrylics, getting inspiration from nature and her own photography. I was taught: “Paint what Smiles at You!”, and the subtle moods of the central valley and the Sequoias are always smiling at me. They are a constant inspiration to me, they offer an endless variety of rich forms, colors and textures to explore.

Do you want to know more?

Baby Boomer turns 60 and turns on her passion.

Hi this is Joy,

All of 2007 I was so excited. Me a baby boomer turning 60 years old in December and I just couldn’t wait, I was looking forward to this time so much that I began to plan what I was going to do with the rest of my life, yikes!  Don’t get frightened, it’s a simple plan. It includes getting back to art and nature. But what was most exciting to me is the fact that I feel free to do this. I feel free to go back to my roots, to create lots & lots of art, and to share the incredible gifts I’ve been given with anyone interested through this awesome tool called the World Wide Web.

MY FIRST REAL MENTOR

My mom found me an art teacher for the summer after my junior year in high school. Little did she know the profound positive effect this would have on my life. Thanks mom, you did good!  Janet Church changed my life. Not only did she teach me the tools to paint from life but maybe more importantly a way to think, a way to use my brain and a love of the growth process. Janet taught me to love learning. The many hours we spent in the car driving to art classes in Los Angeles (to Taro’s house or studio) or out on location to the Laguna Beach tide pools or Carbon Canyon or … we talked. We talked about art and life. We talked about connections, how art related to life. How what we learned from our art lessons were lessons for life.

Janet herself had a hard time finding a teacher that really got down to her philosophical soul and one who was able to teach her the fundamental classical art tools that would allow her to teach anyone to paint from life. The Fundamental, Repeatable, Classical tools… that she would teach for the rest of her life, more about this later. By the way, her daughter Holly is still teaching them in Whittier, CA. 

MY SECOND REAL MENTOR

When I met Janet she had recently discovered an artist named Taro Yashima. Janet called Taro a true genius. Taro who taught, “Art is the Search for the Truth” and would yell out at you in class in his broken English, “would you love your mother if she was flat!, where is your form?”. He was a tough teacher and very hard to understand but filled with pearls of wisdom. I wish to share much of this with you on our blog journey. Taro wrote and illustrated numerous childrens books, most out of print now but used ones can be found on Ebay or Albis or Amazon. His daughter Momo has reproduced a beautiful portfolio of three pieces of Taro’s art work see them here.

I’ve been through many careers, but they just didn’t satisfy my creative soul like art does.

Now it’s time to go forward, this blog is going to share with you the roots of my thinking and journal the great adventure of life and art.

Join me. I’d love to hear from you so please add your comments.  Anything you’d like to say, any questions you’d like to ask me – let’s this take this journey together.