Life Changing Art Instructors, Part 4, Joy Adams

Posted on 6/22/2021 4:52:15 PM by Domenica Brockman
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Part 4

In 2003, I moved from Brooklyn, back to Ithaca, NY, with my husband and three year old daughter, where we opened an antiques store. One day a woman came in with a little Yorkie dog tucked under her arm, and purchased a Victorian era taxidermy fox. I soon found out that her name was Joy Adams, she was an art professor at Ithaca college and that she was the finest representational oil painter I had ever met. Her technique is superb, and her subject, self portraits leaning into her persona “Mad Sally”, are passionate, reflective, joyful and a rather wild.

Here is a picture of a painting of Joy's that I have in my home. It is my most treasured possession:

Joy Adams, "Thistles" Oil on panel, 24"x38", 2004

I longed to be taught to paint that way, and Joy invited me to audit her class at Ithaca College. She taught me all about classical oil painting: How to lay in a tonal sketch, and then build up the base colors, and bring everything to life with layers of glazing, always paying attention to the light in the painting.

She would say, “You must have light in your painting. If you have light, you have a painting.” That was how she created such drama in her own work.

I completed several self portraits in that class. Then, just as I was finishing up the course with Joy, I found out I was pregnant with twins. Oil painting needed to pause for a while and I would not be able to return to it for ten long years… but, as another great teacher once said to me “Art waits for you.” And once my children were old enough for me to be able to have time to myself again, I picked up where I had left off learning with Joy, and started painting landscapes in oil. “Painting the light” became my goal for the next three years.

Domenica Brockman, "Winter Evening", 36"x24", 2016

I hadn’t seen Joy for several years, even though we don’t live far from one another, but recently, I ran into Joy at the grocery store with her little Yorkie in her shopping cart. I was so happy to see her, I gave her a big hug. She looked fantastic, and was as lively and inspiring as ever. She is constantly painting, and showing and I am hoping to help arrange a show of her work in Ithaca some time soon. In the meantime, she is having a solo show in Main Street Gallery in Clinton, NY this coming September, and I can’t wait to see it.

I still take her advice about having light in my paintings, even in abstract work. Here is one example of using light in an nonobjective abstract painting :