82-Lancasttr Fanning, Saturday, August 2,1986
Incoming County Artist Points Portions, bool Historical Scenes
BY BARBARA MILLER
Lycoming Comity Correspondent
FORKSVILLE - Artist Joan
Nicholas Moore and her family live
at Happy Thoughts Farm in
Forksville, located in the scenic
Endless Mountains of Sullivan
County.
Four years ago, at age 45, Joan
became a full-time artist. Com
missioned to do art work from the
age of 20, Joan said a major por
tion of her present income is
derived from painting portraits.
Many of Joan’s other works
feature farm scenes with animals.
Through the years, Joan, a
native of the Pittsburgh area, has
done a variety of artwork. She has
designed and painted scenery for
theatre productions, has been
commissioned to do portraits of
people, including a senator and a
Miss Pennsylvania, and has
completed several murals.
Currently, Joan is working on a
5- by 7-foot mural for the Lycoming
County Historical Museum,
depicting the Sawdust Revolution,
an 1872 labor dispute between
striking sawmill workers and plant
owners. Joan says she enjoys
murals because of their historical
subjects and because more people
are able to see her work on a
regular basis.
Although Joan’s favorite
medium is oil, she says she also
enjoys using charocal and pen and
ink with color.
Joan’s inclination toward art
may have begun in the womb
before she was bom. Evelyn
Nicholas, her mother, is a
professional portrait artist. One of
Joan’s sisters is studying com
mercial art and another is in the
field of art education.
“It helped me a lot to be around
the fine arts and to see how colors
were mixed and used,” Joan
recalls of her early home life.
But, Joan says, “a real feeling of
accomplishment” came at 18 when
she did a charcoal portrait of her
father.
“It was a good enough picture
that when other people saw it, they
asked me to do pictures for them,”
she reflects.
Following high school, Joan
majored in art for three years at
Allegheny College in Meadvdle.
But then Joan put her art career on
A piece of shell fungus served as the base for a great
horned owl carving. These and sculptures created from the
galls that occasionally grow on goldenrod sell well for Joan at
craft shows.
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hold and married. Five children
and 14 years later she was
widowed. Eleven years ago, she
moved from the Pittsburgh
suburbs to her present residence
and married Robert Moore.
Just as the wild trilliums Joan
transplanted to her garden ac
customed themselves to garden
soil, Joan and her children ac
climated themselves to their rural
surroundings. Four of the children
have attended or are attending
college, with only Scot, the
youngest, still at home.
During the years when she was
rearing her children, Joan says she
was able to paint only about four
pictures a year. Now, working full
time, she may average a painting a
week. With portraits, Joan usually
works from a photograph.
Depending on the quality of the
photo, a portrait may require from
two to three weeks.
For a number of years Joan
worked at various jobs to sup
plement the family income,
painting as a sideline. But in 1963
she completed a painting entitled,
“Morning Sentinel,” of a duck
guarding the entranceway to a
barnyard on a summer morning.
By the time Joan had finished the
work, she had decided to become a
full-time artist.
“The painting had power to it,”
she says. “I was able to get the
depth and strength in a picture that
I had always wanted.” Joan said
she thought the picture captured
the character of the duck and the
feeling of the morning light.
“One of the biggest challenges is
to capture the caricature of the
animal,” she explains. “They can
be comical or serious. IJut to catch
that caricature...”
Joan hasn’t regretted her
decision to paint fuU time. This
summer, she reports happily, she
has exhibited her work at three
area art shows and at an Ar
tesian’s Day in the Park at the
county seat.
Gaining entrance to a typical
exhibition, Joan said, may take a
bit more doing than most people
realize. After sending for an ap
plication, an artist must submit
slides to be “juried.” The artist’s
work is judged against about 350
other artists, with about only a
third of the competitors accepted
Joan is working on a mural for the Lycoming Historical Society Museum. The mural will
depict the Sawdust Revolution which occurred in Williamsport.
for the final exhibition,
When asked what intrigues her
about painting, Joan responds with
the passion of an artist, with a
reply as old as the creative urge in
mankind.
“It provides a challenge, pure
enjoyment. I can’t escape it. It’s
just there...it’s always there. The
ideas build up over a period of time
and I have to put them down.”
When a painting is complete,
Joan said she feels a sense of ac
complishment. “It’s something to
look forward to as well as
something to look back on,” she
said.
Living in rural Sullivan County
as opposed to a metropolitan area
has had a few drawbacks, Joan
reports. Art supplies are more
difficult to find, so she often is
forced to order by mail. She fur
ther notes that selling orginals is
difficult because the market is
flooded with prints. And finally,
she said, finding “good space” to
exhibit her paintings is difficult.
But although the remoteness of
the area where she lives hinders
her access to art supplies, Joan
enjoys her rural environment.
“As a child I always wanted a
horse, and when I was 40,1 finally
got the horse I’d always wanted,”
she says with a chuckle.
Joan keeps two horses on the
family’s 28-acre farm and her son,
a butcher, runs a small beef
operation.
For would-be artists, Joan offers
the following advice. “Even
though the field is overcrowded
and competition is stiff, if you feel
you have the talent, don’t let the adds, “Even though you have to set
competition get you down. ” art work aside for other priorities,
And perhaps, just as importantly once in awhile always go back to
from her own experience, she it.”
Joan works on a painting entitled “Pulling Horses at the
Forksville Fairgrounds."
Joan displays a few of her paintings.
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