Massachusetts Artist Paints The ‘Lush Life’

WOODBURY — Artist Joan Lockhart, a former graphic designer for numerous national magazines and books, celebrates her successful return to her professional roots as a painter with a visually exuberant and emotive show, “Lush Life.” The show will open April 14 at The Good News Cafe & Gallery, and then remain on view until June 7.

An opening reception for Ms Lockhart’s show will be held from 3 to 5 pm on Sunday, April 18. The reception is open to the general public, and should offer an excellent opportunity to view the exhibition at leisure and learn more about the artist and her works while enjoying complimentary wine and hors d’oeuvres.

The exhibition of Ms Lockhart’s recent works in acrylics and oils brings the progress of her career full circle from her college studies in the arts at UCLA and the University of California at Santa Cruz, where she earned a BA in photography and painting.

The daughter of a “nomadic academic family” who spent her formative years in California, Hawaii and western Massachusetts, she completed graduate work at the Art Center of Design in Pasadena, Calif., before returning to the East Coast to pursue a career in graphic design.

Over more than a decade in New York City, Connecticut and Massachusetts, she served as art director for national magazines including Sports Illustrated and Scientific American Explorations and designed books for various publishers including Harry N. Abrams.

Ms Lockhart’s rediscovery of her artistic origins as a painter followed a life-changing decision to set down roots and purchase a home in Rockport, Mass.

“It had been over a decade since I had held a paint brush. I had been working as a graphic designer, married to the computer for nearly two decades,” she explained. “My recent rediscovery of painting has to do with settling — not settling for, but settling down.

“After years of moving around, covering much of the country in search of the perfect job, the perfect life,” she continued, “the idea of committing to one place was both my great challenge and my heart’s desire.”

Settling into her new home near Boston “helped me to find freedom and to feel peace,” she observes.

“Things like painting walls crazy colors and putting petunias in the ground unleashed a wild drive. Before long, I ran out of walls to paint and was forced to turn the brush to canvas. I’ve hardly looked back, and on one small piece of land I find, in creativity, that my world is bigger than ever.”

Ms Lockhart says her new work has been inspired by “the full gamut of human experience. When I confront the process of making art, I confront fear, love, wisdom, hope, despair, exuberance. In the best moments, I forget myself, and become mysel f.”

Good News Café, at 694 Main Street South (Route 6) in Woodbury, can be reached by calling 203-266-4663.