Joanna Van – The emerging artist!

Joanna Van, the artist who was born in Taiwan and grew up in Canada, now Joanna lives in Singapore with her parents.

Joanna studied fine arts in the famous art school and now she is a professional artist working in Singapore.

Painting is my LIFE! Simply like this…

Joanna said, Joanna has been creating art since the age of 15, and has been a full time artist and art instructor for the past 6 years, she masters sketching, acrylic painting, oil painting and water colour painting.

Like many young artists, Joanna originally started out drawing, but when she entered high school, a local artist from Canada introduced her to classical painting and she’s been painting ever since.

Today, Joanna creates stunning, even inspiring landscapes meant to trigger emotions and memories for each and every viewer, below is the interview with Joanna by Artist Singapore.

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Art SG: Why did you choose acrylic as your medium?

Joanna: I used different mediums, at this point in time, the acrylic works well for me because its fast-drying properties and to me, this translate into working with more freedom and less preoccupation.

Art SG: You said most of the time your creative process is to complete the paintings on site, rather than use photographic imagery, how do you feel this helps improve the overall quality of your art?

Joanna: Paint on site is a way for me to connect and spend time with the things I’m painting, although sometimes I might eventually finish my paintings away from the subject, the time that I spent working with the objects is crucial in forming a collective experience, it’s a way for me to personalize… so I take in the view and make it my own in a way that I can’t do by working with photographic image…

Art SG: How has your style changed over the years?

Joanna: I started off doing a lot portraits, very precise and meticulous, after travelling around the worlds and seeing a lot great landscape and great nature, I started to experiment with painting the landscape and animals, I experimented with all kinds of different approaches, recently I moved to water media, especially acrylic, which influenced the appearance and speed of my painting.

Art SG: What is your earliest memory of creating art?

Joanna: I feel like I have always been (or wanted to be!) an artist.

Two of my childhood memories strongly stand out in my mind as being really formative. I remember coloring in a coloring book with my Grandfather. I wanted to add things around the pictures, but at school they always told me to stay within the lines.

Art SG: Do you do anything in particular to seal your art?

Joanna: I use a UV varnish made by Windsor & Newton

I feel a varnish really protects the surface, especially from the fine dust and gunk that acrylic paint seems to attract. It also helps make the colors sing—especially in really subtle passages. I like to mix a little gloss varnish with a matte one to get a tiny bit of shine and deepen the color without making it “glossy.” I frequently use a spray varnish on my paintings on gesso board to avoid any brush marks from the varnish.

Art SG: How do you come up with a profitable pricing structure for your acrylic pieces?

Joanna: I did some research to see what range similar sized pieces were going for. I also made a business plan and figured out my income goals (being very realistic!) for the next year, 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, etc.

I also broke down the number of pieces I would have to paint at which price points to reach those goals, figuring in that I would sell a similar percentage of my paintings created as I have for the last few years.

I do consider the size, support, and time spent, but I don’t have a hard fast square inch formula. I use all this information as a guideline, and I also take into account framing or any other costs when setting my prices.

Because I sell in a wide range of places, from galleries to gift shops to coffee shops to large and small shows to online, I need to keep my pricing consistent, but also have things available in a wide range of price points.