New Medium Proves A Winner For Local Artist

By Nancy K. Crevier

Joanne Conant of Newtown has enjoyed three decades of local and national acclaim as a skilled enamel artist, pewtersmith, silversmith, and goldsmith. A student and apprentice of master enamelist Margaret Seeler, Ms Conant has made a name for herself producing brooches, boxes, pendants, and plaques that serve as vehicles for her finely detailed enamel work. Her art work has been featured in Glass on Metal magazine (Vol. 24, no. 5), Enamel Medium for Fine Art by Margaret Seeler, Enamels, Enameling, Enamelists by Glenice Lesley Matthews, The Artist’s Illustrated Encyclopedia by Phil Metzger, Enameling on Metal Clay by Pam East, and Five Hundred Enameled Objects by Lark Books, and the Tucson Art Museum holds one of her enamel pieces in its permanent primitive art collection. She teaches the art of enameling and smithing locally, and privately.

Now Ms Conant is finding recognition in oil painting, a medium with which she has worked for just under four years. In early August, she was notified by the Housatonic Valley Arts Cultural Alliance (HVACA) that one of the two paintings selected for the upcoming juried art exhibition and sale at Danbury Fair Mall has been awarded first place in the painting division.

“A Summer’s Day,” an ocean scene painted from her memories, is an oil painting filled with bold strokes that blend water into clouds that swirl up to a burst of blue sky. A curve of subtle color takes the eye on a walk along the beach beneath that expansive sky, where painterly waves move gently ashore.

“I was surprised to have even gotten into the show,” said Ms Conant. “My work seems totally the opposite of the works of the juror. When I first checked the show out, I thought, ‘I won’t be disappointed if I don’t get in,’” she said.

She has shown her paintings at member and student shows at Washington Art Association, and last year had one piece accepted at the HVACA Danbury Fair Mall show. This past spring, Ms Conant exhibited in a solo show at the Danbury City Hall. She will also be part of a special exhibit at Washington Art Association beginning August 21, featuring scenes from Lake Waramaug in Connecticut, to benefit the Lake Waramaug Association.

Two of the three paintings that she submitted were accepted this year for the HVACA show, however, but even so, when she received the email notification that she had received Best In Show for Painting, she thought she was reading the email wrong. “I even had my husband look at it. It was a real surprise!” exclaimed Ms Conant.

Although she has drawn her whole life, and trained as a commercial artist, up until a friend encouraged her to take a painting lesson at Washington Art Association in Washington Depot, three and a half years ago, she had never painted.

“What I love about painting, I’ve discovered, is that it is very freeing, in the sense that enameling is small, and very precise work,” said Ms Conant. The process of enameling, where ground colored glass is applied wet or dry to metal, fired in a kiln, built up 10 to 15 layers, stoned to an even surface and then fired again, can take months to complete a project, she explained. “Painting is easier on the eyes, and I can let loose. It’s a real pleasure to paint,” Ms Conant said.

The majority of her paintings are water scenes. “I love the water. I grew up near lakes in Minnesota, I live by Lake Lillinonah now, and whenever I’m by the ocean, I just absorb it: the sights, the sounds, the smells. I try to store it in my memory bank,” she said, from which she draws the inspirations for her paintings like “A Summer’s Day” and the other painting she will exhibit in the HVACA show in September, “Tranquility.”

She is still new to the medium of painting, admitted Ms Conant, and is constantly learning from her instructor, artist Ira Barkoff, and her fellow classmates at Washington Art Association. She will travel with the group, for the fourth year, in September, to Little Compton, R.I. “We rent a house there, and we just paint the ocean. It’s wonderful,” she said. “We learn from each other, encourage each other, and get constructive criticism.”

She devotes several hours a week to oil painting in her home studio, but continues to take commissions for her enamel work and teach private students in her home.

“I am elated to have had my painting selected as Best in Show for Painting at the HVACA show,” said Ms Conant.

The Housatonic Valley Cultural Alliance Juried Art Exhibition & Sale takes place September 9 through 23, in the center court area of Danbury Fair Mall. The show is open during mall hours.

Other Newtown/Sandy Hook artists who will be showing at the exhibition are Frances Byrne, Jackie Kelly, and Robert Karnoff.

For more information, visit info@hvculturalarts.org or call 203-798-0760.