A Special Collection Of Art: Santa Claus In Canvas At The Magic Garden

By Shannon Hicks

While not exactly a gallery space, the interior of one store in the Queen Street Shopping Center is playing host to a special collection of unique art this month.

Canvas Santas that have been completely hand crafted by Newtown resident Joanne Kost are being displayed and sold at The Magic Garden, the children’s clothing and accessories store between CVS and Dunkin’ Donuts. The store is owned by Mrs Kost’s daughter-in-law, Nancy Kost.

The Santas are just wonderful. Made from a soft canvas that has been cut by hand by Joanne, they range from about six inches to nearly a foot in height. Each piece is then hand painted with acrylics, bringing to life an Old World-style Santa figure that has, over the years, been seen holding snow globes, a miniature Noah’s Ark, a large basket filled with fruit, a marionette, a cat, stems of poinsettia, a Christmas stocking, and even ringing a bell.

The pieces sell for anywhere from $60 or $75 for the smaller figures to $160 for the largest. Visitors are welcome to stop by The Magic Garden to just enjoy the sight of the Kost family collection, however.

While she tries to add new designs each year, Joanne admits that’s getting to be easier said than done.

“I have Santa with snowmen, Santa holding an ark, Santa with Raggedy Ann, Santa with a snow globe… I can’t really think of something new for Santa to do,” she said.

Joanne Kost began creating the Santas nearly 20 years ago, and first sold them during the 1989 Westport Creative Arts Festival. That event, presented annually at Staples High School by Westport Young Woman’s League, has been consistently named among the top 100 craft shows in the country (Sunshine Artists, 2001–05), was rated in the top ten percent of all shows in the country (Sunshine Artists, 2005), and the Best of the Gold Coast #1 Craft Show (Moffly Magazine Publications, 2005).

Even with all those accolades, however, Joanne decided a few years ago that working for an entire year on her Santas, just to sell out within an hour or so, was not something she wanted to continue to do. She still works in a basement studio of the home she and her husband Bob have lived in for nearly 20 years, but now her customers go to her home for their purchases.

That has not affected her sales, however. She finds she continues to sell “basically all the Santas I still make,” she said. “I’ve been selling them out of my home, and people have still come to buy many for themselves as well as for friends.”

When a new design is decided upon, Joanne creates 12 of the design. She offers 11 for sale and keeps one for herself, ensuring a full collection of her work.

She keeps detailed notes about the paint colors and locations of details, “so when I start a new batch the following year I can re-create what I’ve done in the past.”

She also keeps some of her work on display year-round, and she isn’t alone. While Joanne keeps some of her Santas on view in her studio and uses those as references, customers have been known to keep Santas on display in their homes.

“People have told me they hate to put them away so they keep them out year-round,” she said, smiling. “I don’t keep mine displayed outside of the studio. I like so many other people’s work, I usually try to pick a few of the Santas for a special grouping for Christmas, and let the work of others also share the spotlight in our home.”

Creating the pieces is very labor intensive. It’s the individuality of each work — the fact that each of the up-close details are brushstrokes of paint that were applied by one person’s hand — that keeps the Kost Santas special.

“I couldn’t mass produce these,” Joanne said. “They’re very work intensive, for one thing. I enjoy the process, but the most enjoyable part, the painting, comes last.

“The first thing I’d delegate, if I could find someone,” she continued, “would be to have someone else make the forms. The paintings of the figures and faces is the fun, creative part for me. I enjoy the painting process, but that’s what comes last.”