About The Artist

“It’s all about the light and the high drama that can be created. The early subjects I have chosen to illustrate this dramatic light have been primarily baskets. The light beautifully illuminates the basket, then passes through it to create a never ending array of light-speckled shadows. Even as I expand my subject matter beyond baskets, the drama of the light is still my primary focus.”

Joe graduated with honors from the Art Institute of Boston, and for close to 40 years he has been an award-winning graphic designer. “I will probably always be a designer, it’s in my blood.” But in 2008 he officially added fine art painter to his title. Joe describes his still life paintings as contemporary realism, and his medium is acrylics on canvas. His paintings are created in a tenebrist style. Both tenebroso (Italian) and its English equivalent, tenebrism, refer to a style of painting characterized by high contrast between light and shade.

Frequently the main subjects of tenebrist paintings are illuminated by a single source of light, as if a spotlight shone upon them, leaving other areas in darkness. In order to achieve this dramatic lighting effect, Joe first paints the canvas dark, and then begins to paint the light areas of his subject, allowing the dark background to become the shadow areas. These dramatic paintings of baskets and other objects in the tenebrist style, have become his trademark.