Featured Artist Joseph Coventry

Enjoy the portfolio of mixed media artist Joseph Coventry, who presents a dynamic portfolio filled with wildly imaginative paintings. See more by visiting his website.

 

 

I’ve been painting and drawing since age four, and received encouragement from my mother. I grew up in fear from abuse and a violent inner-city neighborhood, so art soon became my refuge and sanctuary.

 

 

Many years later, after raising a family and finishing a forty-year nursing career, it remains my refuge as well as my sanity and a way to create value and hopefully a kind of beauty.

 

 

I don’t know if beauty is the goal anymore. I certainly have followed current works and trends, but I’ve also spent long periods of time purposely not looking at art of any kind (as much as that is even possible). Inspiration can come from anywhere, but for me it’s primarily from music and poetry or lyrics, as cliché as that might sound.

 

 

I hesitate to say I’m self-taught. It almost sounds arrogant or that I think I have no need for a formal art education, but it was just not having the time or money. I still plan to learn some kind of printing technique, whether etching or lithography, woodcuts or linocuts.

 

 

I took as many studio classes in college that I had time for, and really enjoyed them. Mostly I learned from my peers and being forced to make work.

 

 

I’ve gone through a multitude of styles, techniques and experimental work in the realm of two-dimensional art. I have found that many collectors of my work over the years really love my Musicians and that most of the originals from that series were sold. Having some good fine art photography of those works in my possession, I began making prints of them. This has been a great success, both personally and professionally.

 

 

I love making artwork and my Musicians (the work I’m currently focusing on) are an older style which I’ve revamped into a kind of hybrid of old and new. An example of this is my piece titled “The Piano Man”.

 

 

I have a fascination with Japanese prints of a certain age and plan to create more hybrids along those lines as well. The fact is that it’s difficult to describe in words the very real power and excitement of artistic achievement and the act of creation. The real work of course is in conveying this to you, the viewer.

 

Joseph Coventry invites you to follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

 

 

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