Workshop: Surreal Pet Portrait Painting

Shawn Dell Joyce

Shawn Dell Joyce was born in Texas in 1965 and grew up on the border in Brownsville, TX. She worked in her family’s citrus orchards until an unseasonable frost killed the trees in 1982; this loss changed the trajectory of her career from farmer to artist. She went to art school at University of North Texas in Denton and studied Semiotics with artist Vernon Fisher, then transferred to San Francisco Art Institute in 1987. Joyce’s real education happened as an artist’s apprentice in SoHo section of NY, where she worked in several artist’s studios until leaving the city for the beautiful farmlands North of the city and began teaching plein air classes in 2000, and continues weekly to this day. She founded a plein air school with an Arts and Agricultural mission based on the historic Hudson River School, the Wallkill River School of Art. It still exists today as a nonprofit arts organization with a mission of bringing cultural tourism to the Hudson Valley region through plein air painting workshops and events on local farms, historic sites and open spaces. Joyce has won many prestigious awards for plein air painting and is a signature member of New York Plein Air Painters (NYPAP) and International Plein Air Painters (IPAP), plus has been featured in many national newspapers and magazines like The New York Times, Plein Air Magazine, Plein Air Podcast with Eric Rhoads, Pastel Journal Magazine and Tampa Bay Magazine. She is represented by six galleries around the country, including Wallkill River School in NY, Woodfield Fine Art in St. Pete and Lakeside Inn Gallery in Mount Dora, FL. Joyce teaches workshops in pastel and plein air techniques across the country in Staunton, VA, Olana, NY, Tampa Bay, FL and is included in museum collections in the Georges Pompidou Museum in France and The Museum of Modern Art in NY.