Joan DaGradi was born in Baltimore, Maryland. A youthful fan of the Jon Gnagy Learn to Draw Show, Joan spent many happy hours as a child, drawing figures jumping, running and dancing. Years later while enrolled as a chemistry major at the University of Maryland, Joan discovered how wonderful a Saturday afternoon could be, spent looking at the Chardin and Degas paintings at the National Gallery of Art in nearby Washington, DC. In 1971, her path changed when she first met and began plein air oil painting with Henry Hensche in the summer program at the prestigious Cape School of Art in Provincetown, Massachussetts.
During the winters, DaGradi copied the masterpieces of Velasquez, Frans Hals and Sorolla at the Hispanic Society and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. She studied the original Michaelangelo drawings and Sargent watercolors available at the Metropolitan’s Drawing and Print room. Trips to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Musuem and to the Fogg Museum in Boston rounded out her education of French, Spanish and American Impressionist paintings.
Returning to Provincetown for five summers to complete color studies with Hensche, DaGradi developed the ability to earn a living painting portraits. Moving to New Orleans with her husband, Tony, in 1977, DaGradi honed her portrait skills, while also concentrating on still life in oil, pastel and watercolor.
With Alan Flattmann, DaGradi was one of the founding members of the Degas Pastel Society. She has won numerous awards for her work in oils, watercolors, pastels and sculpture, including a Gold Medal from the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club in New York for pastel. For an in-depth list, see the Resume link below.
Today, DaGradi continues to refine the way she sees things, working primarily in oils. She knows that her best work is still ahead and believes in working hard to accomplish her vision.