The color is what gets you. Soft, creamy greens that evoke an Irish countryside in the first breath of spring. Rich, deep aqua blue shadows cover outdoor spaces and invite tranquil repose. The brighter-than-life dreamscape colors of Joan Steinman depict a fragmented reality that is at once inviting, gorgeous and thought provoking.
“My work has always been influenced by the brilliant light and color of my environment,” Steinman says. “The colors, as I move through daily life, are vibrant, intense, changing constantly, and play a major part in how I translate color and line on canvas.”
Steinman’s latest work will soon be displayed at Lamar University’s Dishman Art Museum. The exhibition of landscapes, cityscapes, still lives and portraits opens with a reception on Friday, Oct. 24, and will feature approximately 40 acrylic-on-canvas prints ranging in size from 14 inches to 5 feet.
“We are honored to showcase Joan Steinman’s exuberant, colorful artwork,” says Fu Chia-Wen Lien, director of the Dishman Art Museum and assistant professor of art history at Lamar. “Her work shows how beautiful Beaumont is and represents a magnificent local history. It is an important reminder after Hurricane Ike that art and culture are still vital in Beaumont, and I think the show will be fascinating for Southeast Texans.”
Steinman hails from Beaumont and has extensive family ties to the area. Her father and grandfather, Doug E. Steinman, Jr., and Doug E. Steinman, Sr., designed a number of buildings in and around Beaumont. Their architectural practice was founded by Frederick William Steinman in 1901.
Some of the Beaumont landmarks designed by the Steinman’s are Beaumont City Hall (now The Julie Rogers Performing Arts Theater), the Edson Hotel, the old First Methodist Church, the City Library and the Jack Brooks Federal Building.
On her mother’s side of the family, Steinman has connections to the Beaumont Rice Mill, started in 1892, by her great-grandfather Joseph E. Broussard, Sr.
Both the Rice Mill and the downtown Beaumont landmarks are featured in the Dishman Art Museum show in a series of paintings depicting the view from the San Jacinto building entitled “Looking West I,” “Looking West II,” and “San Jacinto.”
“Last summer I had the opportunity to revisit shapes and colors familiar to me in the form of cityscapes of Beaumont,” Steinman says. “The rooftops of the tall buildings in Beaumont became mountaintops that allowed me to see the patterns of color and form that are played out in front of us as we move through that landscape everyday.”
The exhibition poignantly includes paintings of the Steinman family cottage on Bolivar Peninsula that no longer exists in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. It was built by her great-grandfather in the late 1920s at Caplen Beach.
“Like so many people who lost homes from Hurricane Ike, this house that I loved is gone. I’ve loved it as a child and as an adult. My children have loved it. Generations spent time there playing, laughing and storing up and sharing memories,” Steinman says.
A graduate of Monsignor Kelly Catholic High School, Steinman studied art in Italy and France before settling in Houston, where she currently lives.
Admission to the reception and exhibition are free (donations welcome). The reception is open to the public and will feature the music of accomplished jazz guitarists John and Paul Steinman, Joan’s brothers.
For more information, please call (409) 880-8959, or visit the museum online at www.lamar.edu/dishman.
