JOAN FINTON: 90 Year Mini Retrospective

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Joan Finton (born 1929), is a painter and print-maker based in Berkeley, California.  Coming of age in the early 1950s, her early work was cubist-influenced figurative abstraction, mostly oil painting, intaglio printing and drawing, drawn from the imagery of her life and surroundings in New York City where she had settled.  Married to a pianist at the time, this is when she first began to sketch jazz musicians, a subject matter she would return to throughout her life. After relocating to Berkeley in the mid 1970s, she returned to figure drawing, and eventually began to experiment with solarplate etching and monotype printing.  Often the mylar plates themselves would become final works in addition to the prints. Her exploration of east-coast milkweeds through this medium led her to a new kind of abstraction.

Ms. Finton is a member of the California Society of Printmakers and has pieces in the collections of  the Achenbach Foundation, the UC Berkeley Art Museum and the US Library of Congress. 

A life-time art-teacher, as well, including 20 years in NYC public high schools, Ms. Finton recently received an award from The Contra-Costa Adult School recognizing 40 years of service, and still gives a weekly class in her home studio.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I was born, artistically speaking, at The Albright Art Gallery of Buffalo, NY, my hometown. After receiving an MFA from Syracuse University, and moving to NYC, my art love-affair continued with the Abstract Expressionists of my era ­– Archille Gorki, Baziotes, Bradley Walker Tomlin, et al. I became, and am, a sometimes abstract, sometimes figurative painter, depending on the need.

For many years my art-making took second place to art-teaching in NYC high schools, while raising two daughters. After moving to Berkeley in 1974 I renewed my interest in printmaking, joining a small collaborative studio, The Blue Bay Press, where I have created monotypes on themes related to nature and to myth. And as a lover of jazz, I have turned sketches of musicians made in the dark of jazz clubs, into series of etchings.

Teaching art has always occupied a pivotal role in my professional life, initially in high schools, now in facilities for older adults and adults with disabilities, and in my home-studio with a small group of gifted adults. Finding ways to astound students with their own abilities, is very satisfying, - and fun.

Over many years my art has found its way into private and public collections, including those of The Library of Congress, The Achenbach Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, and BAM/PFA.