In Memoriam: Joellyn Toler Duesberry

VCCA has learned the sad news that landscape painter, Joellyn Toler Duesberry died on August 5, 2016 at age 72, died. The cause was of pancreatic cancer.

Joellyn was born and brought up in Richmond, Virginia. A summa cum laude graduate of Smith College, she also held an M.A. in art history from New York University’s the Institute of Fine Arts. She received a Woodrow Wilson scholarship and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. She had two residencies at VCCA in 2009 and 2014.

Joellyn became interested in the landscape as a young child while traveling on a train, where she was fascinated by the scenery passing by her window.
 
Joellyn worked as a fine art appraiser in New York City, painting on the side. Her NEA grant allowed her to focus more time on panting. As her career blossomed, she acquired a second home in Millbrook, New York, where she reveled in the landscape as painter and inhabitant.
 
Joellyn’s work was featured in many solo and group exhibitions. It is in the collections of museums in New York, Maine, Virginia, California, the Denver Art Museum and others in Colorado where she moved following her marriage to Ira J. Kowal in 1986.
 
Besides her husband, Joellyn leaves her sister Pat Washko, stepdaughters Rebekah Kowal (David Bullwinkle) and Jessica Kowal (Blaine Harden) and grandchildren Lucinda & Arno Harden and Noah & Isaac Bullwinkle.
 
VCCA extends its heartfelt condolences to Joellyn’s family.


Comments

Sandell Morse said…
I am sorry to hear this news. I shared a residency with Joellyn in Auvillar. She was a bright and vibrant presence.
September 21, 2016 at 3:08 PM
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