Joann Renner
Joann Renner is an Expressionist painter, looking for unseen connections, a sense of experience and place, exploring forgotten or overlooked spaces. She is a published artist, author, and current member of the Pittsburgh Pastel Artists League, Pittsburgh Society of Artists, the Professional Artists Association, and the Create Collective HQ.
During the late 1960s–70s, she grew up in York, PA, and Seaside Heights, NJ, alternately. Earning her BA in Studio Art/Fine Art from the University of Pittsburgh, PA, in 1986, she has had four solo exhibitions and participated in numerous juried and non-juried group exhibitions, including virtual shows.
She was a featured artist in The Great Book of Artmakers – 2025 Edition, ATH Magazine no. 8, and Art and Woman, collector books curated and published by the Arts to Hearts Project, an international arts organization for women artists. Joann is also featured in the inaugural publication of The Art Queens Quarterly Vol. 1 (AQ1), highlighting the work of Art Queens Society members, curated by Ekaterina Popova and published by Create! Magazine.
Her pastel painting, Salmon Run, was featured in Nocturnal Canvas 2 (Aug. 2023), a collaborative concert of art and music presented by world-renowned composer and pianist Margin Alexander, who composed original music specifically for each artwork. In December 2023, Joann was a guest on the podcast Intuitive Art Sales with Jessica Craddock, Episode 59 – Joann Renner, available on Spotify.
Joann is also co-author of The Creative Lifebook 2: Radical Self-Love, a #1 international bestselling book collaboration about creativity, published by IlluminateOurWorld.com (Jess Hughes Media). She is currently residing in Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Artist Statement
The rhythmic energy of nature isn't obvious during our day-to-day lives. But when we quiet ourselves, slow down, and appreciate the power of that magic, marvelous things can reveal themselves. My paintings search for that energy through color and brushwork, revealing the unseen so we can experience truly meaningful, even spiritual, connections within the natural world by bridging that gap between conscious and unconscious awareness of our connection with nature. This is done by working from a deep connection to the natural world—intuitively, expressively.
We only need to slow down, breathe it in, feel its energy. The Earth is calling to us: “Notice me, see me, I am your home,” during these times of climate change and society's challenges. The trees, the animals, the oceans, the air speak to us, though it is up to us to listen and act. Home is, after all, meant to be our refuge, so it is up to us to take care of it. Appreciating our relationship with nature is imperative to ensuring our survival into the future. Our ancient ancestors understood this connection between humans and nature as profoundly magical.
By understanding our climate and its effects on people, we can uplift our communities and improve lives while being good stewards of the Earth.
contact
www.joannrenner.com, https://linktr.ee/joannrennervisualartist
rennerladifference@gmail.com
@joannrennervisualartist
interview
What inspires your art practice and keeps you motivated?
Growing up on the Jersey Shore boardwalk, collecting shells, and watching the constantly changing vastness of the ocean gave me a deep appreciation and respect for nature. No matter where I live, nature exists everywhere and holds hidden surprises that delight the soul.
How does your mission as an artist influence the work you create?
It keeps me looking for the things that we normally don't take time to notice in our daily routines. Curiosity about the natural world, and how light and color can change how we feel, keep me motivated to honor that by making my best work possible.
Can you share a key part of your creative process that helps you stay focused?
Setting loving boundaries has been the best tool for me to carve out time for creating. I now have a dedicated studio space where I go, which makes it easier, and it is respected as my space. It took nearly 30 years for my husband to accept my need for independent time. As for household responsibilities, I set flexible blocks of time for specific tasks to ensure some studio time. It also helps that I count time spent thinking about art, issues affecting my creative practice, and the art business end of things as being totally acceptable.
What mindset tip do you rely on to overcome challenges in your art career?
Mindset is something I've struggled with for many years, once I discovered it actually had a name! Every day it's a challenge to battle societal programming. But through some excellent and compassionate mentorship, I've learned to give myself grace when I make mistakes, and to actually spend time nurturing a painting in progress as it holds a life of its own, instead of thinking of it in terms of a commercial commodity.
How do you hope your art impacts the world or your community?
I really hope that my work will help people engage with their surroundings in a fresh, new way. By looking at forgotten and overlooked spaces that we tend to ignore in our day-to-day routines, we can reconnect with nature and ourselves. When we appreciate our surroundings, we can be better stewards of the Earth, our communities, and ourselves. Even community identity is based on connection to our surroundings, like topography or historical buildings that are often lost during gentrification or war, which can lead to displacement and even loss of culture and individual identity.
