First of all - thank you for reading this page and researching the seller before you make an art purchase - kudos to you!

Secondly, welcome to Art de Joie on Etsy where the actual realism oil painting will always look better than the online preview! This is the place to go if you appreciate detail and authentic drawing technique! Art de Joie is Art of Joy, the award-winning Chicago artist Joy Appenzeller Bauer. Please, please do Google me - I am not one of the internet only Etsy "artists" and I can assure you that if you buy one of my original paintings - you won't see the same or extremely similar image listed again the next day. My original paintings are 100% OOAK (one of a kind). I am probably as upset as any legitimate real artist here by the proliferation of art reproduction factories and their deceptive fast money practices.

All my oil paintings are created entirely by hand (no projector, tracing or use of other electronic aids) and are either composed from my own reference photography or are executed “en plein air” (on site).

I graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995 where I refined traditional French impressionism and urban realism oil painting techniques. After art school, I focused on commissioned portraits for 15+ years while working in advertising/corporate marketing and earning an MBA. As a marketing executive, I travel the world extensively (over 40 countries) and have built up a repertoire of reference photography.

Although equally comfortable with figures, I now concentrate mostly on landscapes and cityscapes, capturing the character and atmosphere of each traveled location. On account of multiple marriages, my art post 2003 is signed without a last name – simply “Joie” (Joy in French).

I currently reside in Skokie, IL (one suburb away from the city of Chicago). Although I have had work on display at several galleries, museums, juried art shows/fairs, and even on prime time TV (CBS's The Good Wife and ABC's Mind Games), I am not actively exhibiting right now and am instead focusing on my day job. For more information on me and event details, please visit www.artdejoie.com or facebook.com/artdejoie.

Member of Oil Painters of America, Plein Air Painters of Chicago: https://www.pleinairpainterschicago.com/