Title: Tobacco and Pepsi

Artist: Joy Parks Coats

Date: 2018

Medium: acrylic on canvas

Dimensions: 40" x 30" (unframed)

This painting was recently featured in the "Greenville, Then and Now" exhibition at the Greenville Museum of Art.

Joy grew up in Raleigh, NC. She attended ECU school of Art in Greenville, NC, as a painting major with a drawing minor. Joy earlier painting were often monochromatic and very detailed. Her work has now evolved to include much less detail with added impressionistic and/or expressionistic qualities using bold, bright colors; she prefers acrylic paint and mixed media. She is most drawn to the impressionist painters, particularly Monet. She believes that the beauty of nature cannot be exceeded, so she rarely looks for inspiration elsewhere.

Joy married in 2013 and moved to the coast of NC. The beautiful coast as well as Caribbean and other travels offer endless inspiration for her paintings. Her works have been shown in various galleries in NC, as well as in online national/international juried exhibitions. She was an award-winning artist whose art has been purchased for private collections in various states across the US. as well as internationally. She is currently represented by nationalartgallery.com

"I currently live on the coast of North Carolina, just as authors are told to "write what they know" I like to paint my surroundings. I have created art since I was a small child and won first blue ribbon in the 4th grade for a country-wide exhibit. I take a camera with me everywhere I go and I like to paint from my own photographs. I have often stopped on the side of the road to take a photograph as unusual cloud formation or beautiful sunset. While some artists may view the world as ugly and horrible. I do not like to paint "ugly" art. I believe that art, like literature, should be a form of "escape" from an ugly world. i like evoke a pleasant emotion through art such as feeling calm or warm remembrances... I also like to travel-I am inspired by colorful Caribbean sunsets, palm trees blowing in the breeze, ocean tides, Tuscany hill towns... I occasionally paint abstracts mostly paint representational art using bold bright colors.