"When it comes to developing visual ideas, I like to explore, observe and respond. My three primary modes of exploration are: making tiny collages, scanning my existing paintings for intriguing details, or wandering around looking at things up close through my camera. I use acrylics, graphite, pastel, conventional and scrounged mark-making tools, plus collage, silkscreen and stencil printing methods to translate the ideas captured in small compositions into large abstract paintings. The goal is to observe and respond in a playful and investigative fashion, in a way that captures the mood, gesture, color interactions or motifs of the initial image.
Lately I have also been thinking a lot about transparency and ambiguity, occasionally working directly on vinyl and photographing it in the landscape, or imagining what would be behind the surface of a painting if I were able to peel back the layers and peer inside.
I paint for the experience of being in the moment, and I enjoy the feeling of painting as an act of discovery. I continue to be amazed at how artwork takes on a life of its own and declares that it needs to be seen, regardless of whether one feels like hiding behind its skirts or enjoys sharing the spotlight."
Joan Huiner Ranzini is an abstract painter and collage artist living and working in Virginia. Her work process and product are shaped by a background in drawing, architectural design and travel in Japan. She seeks to create images in paint and collage that feel potent and alive. Her deep purpose is to discover forms of beauty that develop naturally from the creative process, without preconceptions about palette or imagery.
Ms. Ranzini received her Bachelor of Arts degree with High Honors from the College of William and Mary, where her major was Fine Arts with an emphasis on architecture. She received her Master’s degree in Architectural History from the University of Virginia with coursework in architectural design. She has been in residency at Millay Arts where she was a Mid Atlantic Arts Creative Fellowship recipient, and was a Painting Fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She served as the juror for Contemporary Women Artists of Virginia at the Shenandoah Valley Arts Center and for the 2019 Academy of Fine Arts National Juried Art Exhibition at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lynchburg. In
2020 and 2022 she was one of three jurors for the Annual VMRC National Juried Art Exhibition in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
At the Beverley Street Studio School in Staunton, she has studied, taught drawing classes and served as Academic Program Coordinator. She maintains an active solo and juried exhibit schedule and her work is included in public and private collections in the USA, and private collections in Canada, Germany and Japan.
