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A native of Pasadena, California, Joy Aoki was raised just a stone's throw from Santa Anita Racetrack. Exposed to racing at an early age, Joy spent countless hours painting and sketching horses. In 1978, she became mesmerized by a graceful, copper-colored colt named Affirmed, who forever defined for her the word Thoroughbred.
"Affirmed epitomized the will to win. He represented the difference between the very good and the great and the thoroughbred from all other breeds of horse." Educated in fine arts and illustration at the Art Center College of Design and Otis Art Institute, Joy worked in the commercial art field before returning to painting, and horses, in 1999. While she did study equine painters, her greatest influences came from the drawings and paintings of the Old Masters of the Baroque: Georges del la Tour, Rembrandt van Rijn and Michaelangelo Merisi Caravaggio. Joy's background in design has laid the foundation and defined the discipline of her work. Spending a great deal of time in drawing and composition, her full-size oil canvases involves detailed underpainting and successive layers of glazes. The final effect is one of warm, glowing coats and deep, mysterious shadows. The artist currently resides in Southern California's South Bay. An avid road cyclist, she is currently training for California's King of the Mountains series. |
