Article first appeared in "The
Townsman," October 1995, Associated Media, Boston
The creative process: It exists because musicians hear sounds
differently, writers conceptualize the world around them into
words, and painters see the world more astutely than most
of us.
The process is an ongoing one. The notion that you can start
with a thought and finish with something tangible is the essence
of creativity. This process is apparent in the works of Canton
artist, Joanne F. Regan, whose paintings are on exhibit at
the library at Stonehill College in Easton until October 30.
Stepping into Joanne Regan’s studio is much like stepping
back into childhood with all the delights of sight, sound,
smell, confections and playthings, nudging those memories
and feeling on a the verge of a giggle while imagining a pirouette
in front of her warm, pot-bellied stove. Hanging from beams
are baskets overflowing with antique dolls, teddy bears, marionettes,
nutcrackers and stuffed calico cats. Alongside these, drying
summer flowers hang in unison with scarred, old jugs and campfire
coffeepots near the loft and skylight. In the corner, yellowing
lace sheaths an elderly dress hanging from a rafter yet dwells
comfortably with paint-spattered smocks, easels, books, eucalyptus
and an exhausted straw hat. Classical music, something Baroque,
plays softly from a cassette somewhere in another corner.
Every inch of Regan’s studio is inhabited by something
important and priceless from everyone’s childhood.
Among the child-like fanfare, she stores her paints, canvasses,
props and lights for her job, her livelihood. The only career
she has ever had, Regan approaches her art as a labor of love,
requiring discipline and practice. Her gentle impressionistic
style and whimsical art studio belies her pragmatic, mother-earth
nature. She seems more attuned to loving life, embracing it,
painting it, but never anxiously trying to figure it out.
It is unlikely she would cut off her ear in angst, a la Van
Gogh or abandon her five kids and escape to a tropical island
like Cézanne, whose work she adores. No, Joanne Regan
would probably instead, put another log on the fire, pour
a glass of white zin and smile at the whys and wherefores,
leaving the philosophical questions to the Art Is Life crowd.
This sense of practicality is apparent in the way she approaches
art. Aside from her watercolor florals and still lifes, she
has been commissioned by various realtors—mega-giant,
Conway Country Realty for one—to do pen and ink and
chalk drawings of the houses their clients have bought to
present as gifts. She has done everything from cozy country
cottages to sprawling split levels and condominiums. But her
greatest enjoyment comes from drawing and painting houses
that are imbued with character; houses that almost beg to
be painted.
One old house in particular, an abandoned, tumbledown structure
near Plymouth, was once a 19th-century mill owner’s
house. Based on its elegantly ramshackle condition, Regan
and her huge dog comfortably accommodated themselves on a
patch in the overgrown garden to paint it. She says she felt
drawn to it. “It had a tremendous dignity, it was very
gracious. It reminded me of an elderly lady.” Regan
continued, “The entire time I was painting, I felt I
was being watched, yet in no danger.” Regan later learned
that a reclusive dowager still inhabited the seemingly deserted
house. When the painting was completed, she titled it, “A
Lady on Billington Street” after its cloistered occupant.
The painting went on to win Best In Show at the Norwood
Art Association Annual June Show. “A Lady on Billington
Street” is included and can be viewed in the collection
of her works on exhibit at Stonehill College.
Another feature of Regan’s love of old houses and
buildings shows up in a sense of posterity throughout several
Boston towns and suburbs. Canton High School was once the
site of the Elijah Morse Estate, a vast Victorian situated
atop a hill. Before it was razed, Regan painted it, immortalizing
it. She commemorated the Little Red Firehouse on canvas as
well, which once stood on the corner of Bolivar and Washington
Streets in Canton (now, unfortunately a strip mall). Several
of her paintings documenting the town of Canton and its history
are in the permanent collection of the Canton Library.
Most of Regan’s landscapes are rendered in pastels
or oils and she does them on location. She teaches adult education
art classes and will be joining her students next month at
Milton Lower Mills to paint the dissolute Baker’s Chocolate
Factory and Mill, now undergoing re-gentrification. Immortalizing
grand, humble, historical, or buildings soon-to-be-demolished
are the result of Regan taking the long view for posterity.
Regan’s list of credits is impressive. She is a member
of the Canton, Milton, Norwood and Gloucester Art Associations,
the Copley Society of Boston, and is represented by the Boston
Fine Arts Gallery on Boylston Street. Her awards and juried
shows are from museums and galleries throughout metro Boston
as well as nationwide and was chosen Designated Copley Artist
in 1990.
Her response to being asked what affect all these ribbons
and awards have had on her comes in typical Joanne Regan calm:
“Slightly affirming,” she grins.
She holds a master’s degree in studio art painting,
specifically in the art of the Italian Renaissance. She graduated
from the former Pius XII Institute in Florence, Italy and
has worked in public relations for the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York.
The painter who has influenced her most is Chardin and professes
“an affinity for the impressionists, Monet and Cezanne.”
Americans have also affected her style, most notably Edward
Hopper. Other American artists summon opinions from Regan.
Of the oversized, zoom-in style of Georgia O’Keefe:
“She intrigues me!” But it’s the work of
realist, Andrew Wyeth that exacts a true emotional response
from her: “He was a unique genius, thoughtful, introspective,
not a realist (in artistic thought). His concepts are abstract—a
true genius.”
When she isn’t teaching art in and around Boston,
she gives private lessons to four or five students in her
sunny studio where they enjoy “painting antiques and
other old things.”
Whether a mere glance around her studio or taking in all
there is to survey, it’s no wonder Joanne Regan is as
prolific as she is. It makes one wonder if her studio is “the
muse.” She makes it look so easy with all that sun and
whimsy and the innocent faces of antique dolls and teddy bears
smiling back at you; and laced with the fragrance of eucalyptus
and painter’s turps, one can still distinguish the woodsy
scent of cedar chips smoldering inside the pot-bellied stove
in her charmed, studio of color and art and daydreams.
An opening reception is scheduled for Friday, October 10 from
7-10 p.m. at the Stonehill College Library. Jay Reynolds is
coordinating the exhibit and can be reached for more information
and catalog at 508-238-1081.
|
home
