Website: https://paintingsbyjoan.com/
High up in tropical Far North Queensland, where vivid skies meet equally vibrant ideas, lives Joan Stratton — a contemporary mixed media artist with a palette full of emotion, curiosity, and unapologetic colour. From early days drafting technical diagrams with ink and pen, to her unique “Ether Art” digital works, Joan’s creative path is one of reinvention, resilience, and raw storytelling.
In her sun-drenched studio overlooking lush gardens and flitting sunbirds, Joan creates in a space that’s more like a living memory board than a traditional workspace. Here, digital canvases become portals, each piece whispering its own layered narrative of femininity, landscape, and introspection.
“Art has always been with me,” Joan reflects. “It’s my therapy, my compass, my storyteller.” From childhood to now, the relationship has been complex — intense love, occasional resentment, but always return. When other things distracted her from art, or when art pulled her from the world, she felt its grip. It kept her up at night, filled her thoughts, and shaped her days.
Her early years were defined by hands-on creation — painting in oils and watercolours, and technical drawing for engineering and mining firms. She began using CAD software as it emerged, and unknowingly laid the groundwork for her later digital art transformation. “What I do now is not so different from those days of stencils and structured lettering,” she says. “I just use a mouse instead of a pen.”
Joan’s shift into digital art wasn’t a trend-chasing moment — it was born of necessity. Remote living made traditional materials difficult to source and store, so she adapted. She taught herself to draw digitally using a mouse, replicating the painterly processes she knew by heart. The results became her signature style: Ether Art.
“It starts from nothing,” she explains, “and becomes something layered and alive — a story, a mood, a splash of rhythm.” Some pieces take days or weeks, blending handmade textures, digital brushwork, and imported sketches from paper. Every element is intentional, every detail coaxed into being with care.
Ask her medium what it’s like to work with Joan, and you’d get this answer: “She’s a whirlwind. I never know what I’ll become …. but it always makes people feel.” It’s not far from the truth. Joan treats each blank canvas, digital or otherwise, as a collaborator. She’s playful, precise, expressive, and wild …. often all in one afternoon.
Her work pulls from life and imagination in equal measure …. real textures mixed with dreamlike shapes. Queensland’s heat, the call of birds, old memories and new ideas — they all filter into her colour choices and themes. And somewhere between the real and the imagined, a story emerges.
Joan’s studio isn’t just functional. It’s full of collected beauty …. perfume bottles, shells, books, carvings. “Every corner holds something that sparks a thought,” she says. Behind her are brushes, paper, paints. In front: her digital setup. And always beside her: an A5 sketchpad where future works are born in margin notes and colour scrawls.
Creation often spans six to ten hours a day. Tea in the morning, strong coffee in the afternoon. She jokes about needing a hydration tracker more than a tea tally, but the dedication is real. “I become obsessed,” she says. “I just want to get it all out before it slips away.”
Joan’s art has travelled nearly as far as her imagination. From the Spirit of the Cape exhibitions in 1995–96, to community competitions and solo shows like Up to Now in 2007, her work has appeared across Australia. A highlight: when playwright Barry Dickins referenced one of her pieces in his own poetry during a group exhibit.
Now, her digital paintings are regularly selected for national juried exhibitions …. the Queenscliff Art Prize, Busselton Jetty, South Melbourne Pier, Ballarat, and beyond. In late 2025, five works will be on display at Queenscliff Harbour; in 2026, three more begin a ten-month dual exhibit tour. “It’s all surreal,” she says. “And I’m just getting started.”
Joan is a fierce advocate for copyright, balancing the exposure of online sharing with the reality of image theft and AI scraping. She uses tools like Pixsy and the Australian Copyright Agency to monitor misuse and protect her livelihood. But despite these concerns, she believes visibility is worth the risk ….especially when a single message from a viewer reminds her why she creates.
Marketing is another layer of the work: she uses Pinterest, social platforms, and SEO strategies to reach audiences far beyond her rural surroundings. “It’s like storytelling,” she says. “Just with keywords and captions instead of brushstrokes.”
Joan’s husband supports her in his own way …. usually surrounded by tools, fixing something while she paints. Her children and wider family are proud, including two artist sisters who share the creative gene.
She doesn’t often take commissions, preferring to follow her own rhythm, but she’s always open to connection and conversation. When not creating, she finds joy in travel, movies, good food, and the Australian countryside.
Joan sees herself at a crossroads ….committed to her art, but re-evaluating how to connect in an increasingly saturated market. Still, she creates daily, hopeful the right eyes will find her work. “Even when the path feels uncertain, making art still feels like home.”
And for those wondering what’s next? “I’ve just discovered clipping masks!” she laughs. “It’s like unlocking a whole new world.”
Art is not optional for Joan Stratton. It’s embedded in her identity. Her pieces are rich in motion and meaning, shaped by sun-drenched land and years of evolving vision. Whether painted traditionally or conjured digitally, her works invite the viewer to pause, feel, and listen.
“The work tells me the story I’m meant to share,” she says. “I just translate.”
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