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Joan Alden, writer turned painter, has lived in Charleston five years and teaches at The Citadel. Before Charleston she lived in the Hudson Valley of New York with her late partner Catherine Hopkins, photographer, and wrote full time, producing three published novels and a children’s book. It is Hopkins’ photographic prints that Alden uses in her paintings. Alden pastes the black and white prints to canvases and paints them with the same oils she uses to create extended backgrounds for the photographic images. In some cases the photographic image is more obvious than in other cases in which it is almost hidden under the paint, and except for the sharper focus that the observer will discover in the center of the painting that provides the clue that the print is there, one might not know. Although Alden works with oils of every color, her paintings now on display in King Street Kitchen Company are all in hues of brown and cream and shades of blue and green. On display at Med Bistro, Alden’s work incorporates brilliant yellows and greens and reds. Her subjects at both places vary from landscape and architectural details to people and pets, sometimes mysterious and oftentimes humorous such as the painting titled Calligraphy of two dogs on the beach. Their position, naturally canine, is of one sniffing the butt of the other, suggesting a graceful pen stroke. The largest painting (30X40) at KSKC is titled Blanket. It is a dramatic seascape with the back of a swimmer sitting at the surf while a wave, appearing like a blue blanket, covers her outstretched legs. Another large painting is narrative in form with four separate prints of children at a quarry, suggesting an afternoon swim from another century. All total there are 21 paintings hanging at KSKC, 12 at Med Bistro, and 6 at Chart. Alden has had two shows in the area, a one night show October of 2007 at Gage Hall and a month long show at The Alchemy Café this last September. Both shows were well received, selling fifteen paintings each. Alden keeps her prices affordable.
