Joyce Zeller - Honored Member 2018

Joyce Zeller, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club’s Honored Member of 2018, is a many-talented artist, an organized inspiring leader, a successful business owner, a constant traveler and a patron of the arts. As the Club’s president from 2006-2009, she focused on strengthening the Club’s public image. And she was the driving force behind the publication of “The Chronicle”, a richly illustrated narrative of the CLWAC’s first one hundred and twenty years. She continues to be an enthusiastic advocate and publicist for the organization. She also established an annual scholarship at the Art Students League for a promising female artist and managed to modernize the Club’s website.

During her early career, Joyce studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and later taught a course in entrepreneurship there. While teaching, she opened a clothing and shoe boutique in New Jersey and New York which occupied her for many years.

Selling her business so that she could develop as an artist, her first love, she studied at the National Academy of Design, the Art Students League and the New York Academy School.Portraits became Joyce’s specialty. Four Federal Court judges of the Southern District of New York commissioned her services for their official portraits. Her portrait of the 81st US Attorney Michael Mukasey is hanging in the Justice Department in Washington, D.C.   Other public commissions include portraits of Dr. Cynthia Starr, of the Dr. Starr Breast Cancer Center of Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg, NJ and Headmasters of the French American School in Mamaronek, NY.  These works are classically composed, three-quarter length views in oil and are strong and dignified, showing a gravitas befitting the subjects position and the public places where they hang.

Other works of family groups also make up her oeuvre. These paintings place the subjects in homelike environments that give further clues to the personality and character of the depicted families. The drawings of children, mostly head studies in pastel or graphite, give off a sensual and quiet beauty. There is an inner emotion evident in these small, delicate depictions.  And, in addition, her pet portraits have garnered interest:  Gallery&Studio magazine commented on her ability to imbue a pet portrait with a formal rigor that makes what could be a sentimental portrait into a success in purely aesthetic terms.

Joyce has had a solo exhibit and also been accepted into many juried exhibitions in the metropolitan area.  Many awards have come her way, including ones from the Salmagundi Club, the Greenwich Art Club and the coveted Horse Head Award from CLWAC.  She sits on the board of the Artists’ Fellowship and is a member of the Portrait Society of America, the Connecticut Society of Portrait Artists and Allied Artists of America.  She is also an associate  member of the Pastel Society and a permanent advisor to CLWAC.    The board of the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club is proud to have Joyce Zeller, a lady with a quiet demeanor and fierce energy, as our Honored Member for 2017.