“The House Artist” memorializes cherished homes in watercolor
Joan Doyle spent her first 30 years in her native Ireland before accepting a job at Disney in Los Angeles, doing hand-drawn animation. “I came on a wing and prayer. I was very shy, working at Disney was very intimidating, and it was my first trip away from home. I cried a lot,” she recalls.
And then, her very first day on the job, the 6.7-magnitude Northridge Earthquake (one of the most devastating in U.S. history) hit LA. “I thought, ‘What am I doing here? What have I done?’”
Nevertheless, she stayed.
“My dad discouraged me from pursuing a life in art, but when I was able to send money home, I think he changed his mind.”
She went on to work at DreamWorks and on commercials at ACME Filmworks in Hollywood, completing short-term assignments with long breaks in between. “It was like being semi-retired, but it paid very well. In my down time I started doing paintings of houses,” she says. Doyle sensed that hand-drawn animation was becoming obsolete, so she began showing samples of her work at real-estate offices, who would gift the watercolor home portraits to their clients at closing.
A new career was launched.
As Doyle explains, “People want a house portrait for all different sentimental reasons, or because they are super proud of their house. I painted my favorite house in the neighborhood as a sample and gave it to the homeowner, whose then-15-year-old daughter recently contacted me, because 20 years on she wanted me to paint her own home.”
As a watercolorist, Doyle knows her medium needs free rein. “You have to allow it to do what it does — you don’t have full control. As my husband says, watercolor is alive on the page.”
But architecture is exact, and so to strike a balance between flow and accuracy, Doyle acquires detailed photos of the house and everything about it that the homeowner wants included (for instance a birdhouse or stained-glass window) or left out. “To add drama and excitement, you want the most contrast where you want the eye to go. It’s about choosing the right season to paint the house, the right lighting,” she explains.
Doyle also creates elaborate family-tree portraits, sepia-toning photos, then collaging the images and embellishing them with personalized illustrations of a family’s history, such as military emblems.
She started with her own family. “I have eight siblings,” she reveals, “and being alone in LA was so hard.” Next she created a family tree for her then-landlady, from whom she learned about the huge Genealogy Jamboree in Burbank.
“I set up a booth, and that’s how it started.”
The family-tree projects, though time consuming, are more suited to her current life in the Smokies. After years of world travel, Doyle landed in Haywood County. “I wanted to experience seasons again,” she says, “and when a friend invited me to visit, I loved the mountains and the greenness. It reminded me of home. I was ready for a quieter pace of life.”
Joan Doyle, Clyde, thehouseartist.com, “The House Artist” on Facebook, and theartistryoflife.com. Doyle’s work is carried at Twigs and Leaves Gallery (98 North Main St., Waynesville, twigsandleaves.com); at Origami Ink (6 Boston Way, Biltmore Village, origamiink.com); and at Haywood’s Historic Farmers Market in the HART Theatre parking lot (250 Pigeon St., Waynesville, waynesvillefarmersmarket.com).