Joan Cohen Jones describes herself as a traditional watercolorist, merging exquisite detail with panoramic scenes that employ both soft and vivid transparent colors. Joan has always been interested in art and jokingly says that her creativity “peaked” when she was in kindergarten and used her elbows to create elbow prints with finger paints that looked remarkably like morning glories. Joan’s interest in art continued throughout her childhood and adolescence, encouraged by her mother, a gifted amateur artist. During Joan’s extensive academic career she incorporated her two loves, mathematics and art by teaching courses and writing books on the numerous connections between art and mathematics. Joan hoped that by recognizing these connections, her students would come to appreciate the universality of mathematics and how it connects to our daily lives.
As Joan neared retirement she decided to take a watercolor course, based on the recommendation of her childhood friend. That was 12 years ago. Since that time, Joan has worked tirelessly to master the art of watercolor through workshops with nationally and internationally recognized artists as well as excellent local teachers. Joan is a perfectionist and applies the same diligence and focus to her watercolor as she did to her academic pursuits. Her work has been very well received and collected by watercolor enthusiasts both locally and nationally. Viewers often comment about technical aspects as well as aesthetic ones, such as the light she achieves in her work, her use of perspective, and the sense of peace and calm her work evokes. In the past year Joan had several solo exhibits in the Greater Ann Arbor area.
Joan has recently become interested in miniatures and, over the past year has painted many 2”x3” scenes that are very popular. These tiny paintings often take more skill than ones that are much larger but Joan loves the challenges they present. Joan’s work is available professionally framed or matted. Giclees of some works are also available.
