Artist Bio

Joanie McGinnis (American, born 1962)

Large, sweeping brushstrokes and vibrant colors splashed across the canvas place Joanie’s current works squarely in the Abstract Expressionist tradition.  She refers to her current series as “Jazz Impressions”.  Her inspiration for the works come, in part, from listening to the sounds of improvisational jazz greats like Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Dave Brubeck and others.

Growing up in her native Indiana, it was Joanie’s mother who encouraged her from an early age to pursue her art. Throughout her high school, university years, and adulthood she has continued to study with many teachers.  In high school she experimented with batik, jewelry making, watercolor, & print making. In her twenties and thirties she painted landscapes and florals using watercolors with various teachers, starting with University of California at Berkeley instructors at Diablo Valley Community College, Patricia Wilkinson at Indian Hills Community College, Rose Edin, a Signature Member of the American and National Watercolor Societies in weeklong watercolor workshops, Terrence Kennedy of Laguna Beach CA who studied fine art at Laguna School of Art and Design, and Bill Teeple a graduate of UC Berkeley Art School and who has been teaching in Fairfield, Iowa for the last 20 years.

As Joanie’s watercolor works matured, they became increasingly abstract. There came a time when Joanie realized that she enjoyed the freedom that came from painting non-representational images.  Influenced by one of her art teachers and mentors, Bill Teeple, she began experimenting with oils and acrylics. She soon discovered that acrylics were the ideal medium to create layers of transparent colors like her early watercolors.  Today she paints almost exclusively in acrylic.

Although some of Joanie’s works call to mind Joan Mitchell, Willem de Kooning, or even Jackson Pollock, her work is instinctively on the brighter side of the emotional spectrum.  They are filled with dynamic movement, surprise shapes, and bold colors.  Each of her canvases can be enjoyed in their completeness or the viewer can get up close and marvel at the detail.

Joanie’s watercolors and abstract works can be found in both Private and Corporate collections throughout Iowa, Indiana, and California. She has exhibited in solo and group shows in multiple galleries, including the prestigious ICON Gallery in Fairfield, Iowa.  Group shows include Freeport Art Museum in Freeport, Illinois; Anomaly Gallery in Ottumwa, Iowa; Teeple Hanson Gallery in Fairfield Iowa; Emerald Gallery in Fairfield Iowa; Kirkwood Civic Center in Des Moines, Iowa; and Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa.

It is Joanie’s sincere desire that her work will have an emotional impact and leave the viewer with feelings of joy and happiness.