Featured Artist : Joyce Estes

Joyce Estes began painting when her young children entered school. She started taking art classes at Pensacola Jr. College in order to decorate her home with original oils. This led to many lessons, shows, and workshops where her love of painting grew.

She was drawn to en plein air painting, eventually studying with five members of the International Society of Marine Painters.

Joyce moved to Franklin County, Florida in 1976 and opened her own gallery. She filled it with original oils and watercolors, limited edition prints, her own line of coastal stationary, pen and ink renderings of the area, and the cookbook Seafood the Apalachicola Way.

In 1995 Joyce began painting on silk with French dyes. She fell in love with the way the dyes flow on silk and the vibrant colors they produce. To date, she has worked with several nationally known silk painters and is now considered a master designer in silk.

Joyce has studied and worked with the most promiment silk painters: Suzanne Punch, a New York silk designer and artist; Jan Janas and Dianne Tuckman, the authors of Creative Silk Painting and The Best of Silk Painting; Karen Sistek, the author of Karen's Guide to Silk Painting; and Susan Moyer, a New York designer now living in Mendocino California and author of two books on silk painting (considered the best of all silk information), including Silk Painting for Fashion and Art and Silk Painting.

Her work is available through Bay Art and Frame in Eastpoint, FL and Sea Oats Gallery on St. George Island, opened in 1996. She is available for weekend workshops in your area and to groups locally.

Joyce has been featured in many one-man shows and has numerous awards to her credit. Corporate and private collectors throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe have collected her work. She has corroborated on two books about the history and fragility of the Apalachicola Basin.

She uses Tinfix and Pebeo Soie dye on 12mm Habotai. On the long drape over the banners in blue, she used 25 yards of 8mm Habotai with Dye-na-Flo heat set.