Art teacher Joyce McClements sells life-like paintings
With a camera, her laptop, and some paintbrushes, visual arts teacher Joyce McClements practices what she teaches, bringing her ideas and aspirations to life through paintings.
This year, McClements sold seven of her works of art. Some of the people she has sold to include a lawyer, a small business owner, a doctor, and a man in Britain. People usually find out about her art through Facebook after seeing her paintings and work out a deal with her.
McClements prefers to create life-like representations of scenes in photographs or from real life, but also paints abstracts. One of her paintings typically goes through many hours of preparation, and can take up to three weeks to complete.
“I do all my preliminary work on the computer,” said McClements, who came out of retirement this fall for a temporary teaching stint at SCHS. “I take about 150 photographs, play with them on the computer, and then begin painting.”
McClements discovered this passion after winning two blue ribbons at the county-fair in first grade. It was then that she began taking her craft more seriously, and set out to be the best she could.
Four years after winning the ribbons, her artwork won another contest and was featured in a national traveling show. In high school, she also had a piece featured in a show in Washington D.C.
Most of the time, McClements paints when she “feels like it” but she also does commissions, which are pieces people request from her.
Although she thinks commissioned paintings are difficult, she finds them gratifying, like one that a lawyer requested. He wanted McClements to paint a picture of his friends on a hiking trip.
“When he saw it, he began to jump up and down,” she said.
McClements said she is currently working on a website where she will be able to sell and showcase her work, and hopes to have it up within a month.
To read our Q & A with Joyce McClements in the Campus section, click here