Joan Stratton - Paintings By Joan

Welcome to Paintings by Joan - Art & Design by Joan P Stratton. I live in the tropical far north, Cape York, Queensland, Australia. My beautiful home and country is the inspiration for my art. I began my working career in Melbourne, as a trainee in graphic art, technical drawings and drafting for a mining and engineering company.

With the diversity of work available to me, I gained vast experience with all matter of mediums prior to the advent of computers. In the mid '80s, as a side-line to my permanent employment, I designed and prepared artwork for record covers (Albums, Eps), promotional ads and flyers for rock bands that marketed their music independently. I see myself as a mixed media artist, I love every medium and they all call to me at one time or another. I love to create art...it calms me, completes me and takes me away to colour, brush and creativity. Whether putting that brush to paper, canvas or using a digital brush, my mind is totally captured by the piece I am producing.

My most recent works have been digitally drawn, using a mouse which has been quite challenging as it is not at all like using a pen! Though I do find that my design drafting background and years of CAD experience helps me with understanding the computer drawing process and capabilities of the software.

I have also been experimenting digitally using some of my existing acrylic/oil paintings on canvas and incorporating digitally drawn elements to modify, redraw or have additions to enhance the original or to modify to form a completely new piece of art.

For the last couple of years, I have been digitally drawing the illustrations for my self-published children s books (Grow with Joe Children s Books, Minnamoolka Station Series available via Amazon).

I have very much enjoyed drawing the animals of North Queensland! Art is a personal experience that is seen differently by people from all walks of life. When creating I feel the story of the piece and try to do that story justice. I invite art lovers to enjoy viewing my work and the stories behind them.