Joy returned to art in 2015 after a teaching career in Halifax. Building on previous experience with drawing and watercolour, she started working in acrylic, and has been focusing her interest on figure painting, landscapes, seascapes, and cityscapes. Most recently, Joy has been exploring photographic art and the surprises and discoveries that come with image cropping and editing.
Deriving subject matter from people, and from places within Nova Scotia, as well as from where she has travelled, Joy draws inspiration from natural forms and from the extraordinariness of ordinary people, places and things. Her paintings exhibit a passion for colour, an attention to light, shadow, composition, and detail, and an appreciation of the beauty that surrounds us.
Joy recently received the Louisa Letson Award and the Open Category Award at the Contemporary Art Society of Nova Scotia juried show 2026. She received the Pauline Manning Award (Best in Show) and Honourable Mention for Landscapes and Seascapes at the juried show in 2025, the Pauline Manning Award and Honourable Mention for Figures in 2019, and the Honourable Mention Award for Landscapes in 2018.
