The Arts

Painting for Love, Joy, and Health

Story by CONNYE GRIFFIN | Photos by AL GRIFFIN

Love stories often begin with the words once upon a time. This one does, too.

Once upon a time, Joe Davinroy’s wife returned home from a short business trip to a bouquet of roses in a lovely vase. These roses never lose petals. Their vivid deep red color and highlights never fade. They are acrylic on canvas—just something Joe created as a token of his affection. The painting graces the Davinroy home and can be seen from many angles in the heart of the home.

Yes, the star of this story paints for love. He also paints for the love of painting. When he can’t pick up a golf club, he picks up a brush. The walls of his home are a gallery for Davinroy originals. Those lucky enough to tour will see a drone’s eyeview of the Ha Ha Tonka castle ruins and a mesa stark against a clear blue sky with cacti in the foreground. On another canvas, a yellow path, reminiscent of Dorothy’s yellow brick road, winds through Ozark woods, rich with Autumn’s color. A fourth canvas invites the viewer into a garden scene showcasing emerald green growth surrounding a tiny oasis nestled among nature’s finery.

Joe shared four early canvasses with Dr. Paula Brown of Lake Fine Art Academy and Galleria. She said, “We can fix these.” As Joe progressed as a painter, he earned a spot in Dr. Brown’s gallery. One in particular, “Chi Town’s Storm,” earned special praise memorialized with a YouTube video posted to Facebook (see link below). Dr. Brown admired Joe’s interpretation of a storm above Chicago’s skyscrapers. In the video, she notes Joe’s use of color, the arrangement of objects, and the energy evoked by heavy clouds and lightning flashes.

Between that first showing of four early canvasses and Joe’s work being available for sale in the gallery, his life took a 180-degree turn. He had a stroke affecting his ability to speak and to use his right side. He still has some challenges in using his hands. Painting became more than a pastime for him then. It became therapy, a way to heal, and a way to support others in similar circumstances.

Speech therapy and art therapy were two programs that helped Joe overcome. Pre-pandemic, Dr. Brown led an art therapy group at Lake Regional, one of the many health care sites where Joe served as a pharmacist at Lake of the Ozarks or St. Louis. Dr. Brown invited Joe to become a participant and later, an assistant.

For the therapy sessions, Dr. Brown paints a scarecrow, a Santa, and a scene with balloons prominent. She offers these as examples for group members to interpret and paint. Joe worked in 20-minute bursts—the amount of time his hands would cooperate before needing a break— and when not painting, he walked from person to person to offer encouraging words. He hopes to pick up that volunteer work again when health care facilities are no longer in the grip of pandemic protocols.

Davinroy’s subjects are as diverse as his interests. He’s a golfer, retired pharmacist, devoted husband, father of six, and grandfather to 18. He has enjoyed the lake life since 1986, beginning a full-time stretch in 1994. Except for a brief return to St. Louis in support of family, the Davinroys have been part of the lake community for 35 years. Their life is here where Joe continues to find inspiration from memory and photos.

His most recent canvas is of a iron-red barn edged in white. It sits among the verdant shade of Missouri’s woods. Nature is the barn’s backdrop and front yard. Like many folk artists who have gone before and will surely come after, Joe has captured nature’s art surrounding man’s. He’s done this many times on canvas and continues to enjoy creating for love, joy, and health.