Joan Timmins, artist and writer

Joan Timmins (née Folinsbee), (Aug 25, 1926 to Nov 4, 2024) lived and worked in Toronto, Thornhill and Thornbury Ontario, as well as the Eastern Townships of Quebec. She has painted across Canada from British Columbia to the Maritimes. She graduated from the Ontario College of Art with First Class Honours in 1949 and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University in 1978. Her many influences over time included the Impressionists, American Abstract Expressionists, Group of Seven and Wm. Blake. In 1983 she became a member of The Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour.

Joan won awards for her work and exhibited widely. For many years she sought to combine her paintings, drawings, and small pen and pencil sketches, with essays dating back to the early seventies. From running art classes in her studio in Thornhill, teaching art at Collingwood Collegiate Institute, and exhibiting across the country she has touched the lives of many. Her work can be found in private collections across Canada.

In 2006 she started losing some vision and was diagnosed with AMD. By 2020 she was legally blind. Despite trying different methods for continuing to create art she finally put the brush pen away in 2023 at the age of 97.