Kawartha Arts Network
632 Janetville Rd.
Janetville, Ontario L0B 1K0
Joanne Phendler
Nature-loving. Oil. Acrylic. Landscapes. Sense of awe.
Joanne Phendler
Joanne Phendler is a nature-loving, self-taught artist from a small town just outside Lindsay, Ontario. Growing up in the country sparked her love for camping, hiking, and capturing those quiet, awe-inspiring moments in acrylic and oil paint.
Joanne’s work isn’t only about the peaceful calm of the outdoors; it’s also about its raw, humbling beauty. The feeling of being a tiny part of something much bigger than ourselves. The sheer love of nature, the shifting light, and the weather in all its moods are an inspiration.
Growing up in a household where science, math, and athletics reigned supreme, art wasn’t something she considered as a way of life, just a fun way to pass the time. Childhood came with so many rules: bedtimes, coasters for water glasses, homework, sports, and school. Even art felt full of rules, just another subject where you were either right or wrong. These rules surrounded her daily life and followed her onto the canvas. In kindergarten, after painting a sky with a strip of blue at the top and white between the blue and the green grass, her teacher told her that the sky must meet the horizon line, even though she noticed some days the sky had a gradient from blue to white. Art was a subject she didn’t understand, which made it frustrating and stressful for her.
It wasn’t until her high school art teacher encouraged experimentation (i.e., painting on tissue paper, trees in purple) that she realized the rules in art were really just guidelines, sometimes optional ones at that. She learned that when the “rules” were broken and her eyes opened to fearless experimentation, her art grew stronger.
The influence of math and science in Joanne’s life, combined with her growing creative spirit, led her to a career in architecture, where she could merge creative instincts with the precision of math and science. While working, Joanne continued to create art and experiment. She began selling her work, teaching others what she knew, and running fun paint parties.
As life grew busier, with more work and less time for friends, family, and even less for her own creative interests, she realized she needed to step back into a life that could nurture what truly made it fulfilling. Joanne realized she needed less structure and more freedom in her daily life, just as she needed autonomy in her art. What started as a hobby and side hustle has become a permanent calling; painting landscapes that carry not only serenity but also humility, depth, and a sense of awe. Paintings that remind us of what really matters.
Today, Joanne hopes to help others see that painting doesn’t have to follow strict rules. Mistakes, like flowers that look like clouds, aren’t failures but opportunities to make something unique and beautiful. She understands those early teachers meant well, they taught what they knew. But Joanne believes there’s room for every perspective, even the four-year-old who saw the sky fade to white, and that art should be as big, wild, and free as the world it tries to capture.
More of her work may be see on:
