Portraits of My Therapist is a series of finger-painted oil portraits built through mixing, sculpting, and layering paint by hand. The work turns on the intimacy of the therapeutic encounter—on care, exposure, and the quiet tension of being seen. By removing the distance of the brush, touch becomes both material structure and psychological record. The surfaces hold vulnerability not as a single moment, but as something accumulated, eroded, and rebuilt through prolonged attention.
Gray - oil on canvas, 2025, 36 x 36 in.
Pink Plaid - oil on canvas, 2025, 40 x 30 in.
Polo Stripe - oil on canvas, 2024, 14 x 11 in.
Blue Sweater - oil on canvas, 2025, 14 x 11 in.
Plaid Cuffs - oil on canvas, 2024, 40 x 30 in.
Colorblock - oil on canvas, 2024, 72 x 48 in.
Charcoal - oil on canvas, 2025, 40 x 30 in.
Stripe with Honey Tortoise Hipster - oil on canvas, 2025, 30 x 40 in.
Joyce Polance is a painter based in Catskill, New York. Her work spans portraiture, figure painting, and landscape, with a focus on psychological intensity, relational presence, and tactile surface. She is currently preparing Portraits of My Therapist for exhibition in New York.
Joyce Polance
Joyce.Polance@gmail.com
www.joycepolance.com
Catskill, NY