Joan Doyle

    Joan, a native of Ireland and resident of Clyde, has been a watercolorist since she was a teenager. She moved to Western North Carolina in 2018 and became newly inspired by the beauty of the landscape.

    Her working career began as a Graphic Designer in Dublin Ireland but after taking up a job with an American animation company she moved to California in 1994 to pursue her career as a Special Effects animator. Her feature films credits include Beauty and the Beast, Hercules, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and All Dogs Go to Heaven. A highlight of her career was working on Fantasia 2000 with Roy Disney, Walt Disney’s nephew. She also worked on many TV commercials.

    When it was time to leave the big city and seek the seasons and a similar climate to her youth she was delighted to find what she was looking for in Western North Carolina. It was then that her watercolor hobby became her ideal job and she also began to teach what a lifetime had taught her. Watercolor is infinitely exciting for Joan as she sees the colors, in their water medium, come alive on the paper, merging and flowing with soft edges or sharp contrast. Visually stimulated by the changing skies, the blue of the mountains, the changing trees, she tries to capture the feeling of what she witnesses. People say there is a serenity in her paintings that is comforting and brings them peace.

    Joan has been a world traveler and athlete, having climbed the highest peak in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro and completed three Marathons, in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Dublin, Today she drives and hikes from the Parkway, walks at Lake Junaluska with her dog Sofi and is constantly excited to begin her next watercolor painting.

Learn more about Joan, her art and many interests here.