Joan Hooker is an oil painter who concentrates on still lifes, striving to express the essence of her subjects as well as represent in her work the response which motivates her to paint those subjects.  As Corot said, “Beauty in art is truth bathed in an impression from nature. While I strive for a conscientious imitation,  I yet never for an instant lose the emotion that has taken hold of me.  Reality is one part of art; feeling completes it.”

Joan received a master of Fine Arts in painting from the New York Academy Graduate School of  Figurative Art in 1993, where she studied with Eric Fischl and Ted Schmidt among others.  She had previously studied at Pratt Institute, the Corcoran School of  Art, and received her B.A. from Smith College. 

Joan benefited from the inspiration and tutelage of her grandfather, Pennsylvania impressionist John F. Folinsbee, and her uncle, landscape and portrait painter Peter G. Cook.

Joan Hooker’s work has been exhibited at the National Academy of Design, Hirschl &  Adler Galleries, Allen Sheppard Gallery, Newington Cropsey Foundation Gallery, Somerville Manning Gallery, the Butler Institue of American Art, the Penbobscot Marine  Museum, Rockland Center for the Arts, among many others.  Her work is currently represented at the Newman Galleries in Philadelphia. 

Joan resides and works in Palisades, New York.  She is currently teaching painting at the Art Students League Vytlacil Center in Sparkill, New York.