Joan trained in Dorset with the Byron School of Art and the Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design, learning her skills of watercolour and acrylics. A love of flower painting developed as well as an interest in design, abstract techniques and use of mixed media . Continued experimentation in acrylics has brought her to the unique style of rich layered colours often textured creating contemporary floral, impressionist garden scenes and spiritual subjects.

A member of the Society of Floral Painters since 2000, on moving to the Fens she has also become a member of the West Norfolk Artists, vice chairman of the Fenland Visual Arts Collective and teaches in her village and the town of Wisbech.