March 02, 2006 Issue                                               

©2005 The Chestnut Hill Local

Hiller counsels sex offenders
‘Macho’ parole officer now immortalizes natural beauty
by DAVID HAUGAARD
AND J. LOIE GROSSMANN

Chestnut Hill artist Bob Joachim sits in Lloyd Hall on Kelly Drive behind the Art Museum, where he is taking a painting class. He shows off his new abstract painting, “Celebration,” which is oil over acrylic paints, 18” x 24”. Joachim is a retired parole officer and minister who now paints full time and is a leading member of the Manayunk Artists’ Co-Op in the Gallery at the Manayunk Art Center. (©Photo by G. Loie Grossmann)

What kind of art would a man create who attended business school to please his dad, studied in seminary school to gain credentials to work as a minister, left the church when his ideas were more liberal than his church’s, became a parole officer and supervisor for 32 years with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and then retired to life as an artist? The answer is serene and beautiful paintings by Chestnut Hill artist Bob Joachim in Plein-Air, a French term artists use for painting outdoors, along with his emerging work in abstract art.

The upcoming show at the Manayunk Art Center, “Bob Joachim: From Plein Air to Abstraction,” will feature the paintings by this longtime resident of Chestnut Hill. Most of Joachim’s works on exhibit will be landscapes which he painted outdoors in his favorite natural haunts, including the Wissahickon Creek in Fairmount Park, Boat House Row along the Schuylkill, the Jersey shore, the Poconos, Key West in Florida, Danfuskie Island off the South Carolina coast, and rural Scotland. Joachim’s finely tuned appreciation for nature shines in the paintings, which are characterized by graceful scenes and warm colors that are both radiant and subdued.

“Growing up, my kids thought of me as a kind of macho guy, into law enforcement and sports,” said Joachim, the retired state parole officer who has now achieved success as a painter, “I don’t think they really knew about my more creative side.” Not that Joachim has any regrets about his 32 years as a parole officer and supervisor, a position he found both challenging and rewarding. “I tried to improve people’s lives in some way,” explained Joachim. “I was part cop and part social worker, trying to find that balance of protecting society from paroled offenders in danger of relapse while also helping ex-offenders to turn their lives around.” Joachim worked with a particularly challenging group, sex offenders, and he still volunteers as a counselor to a group of paroled sex offenders.

Today, however, Joachim is more likely to be searching for balance in the color wheel that he studies methodically. The color wheel demonstrates the results of mixing specific colors together. “I work from a limited palette,” Joachim said, “just a few colors — burnt sienna (a warm brown), ochre (a soft yellow), aquamarine and a tinge of red. That gives me more control in shading appropriately, and in finding colors that are truly complementary to each other.”

When he first started painting, Joachim painted still-life arrangements of fruits and flowers. “That’s a great introduction to the basics of composition, lighting and perspective, but landscapes are so much more interesting. You can’t possibly paint everything you see in a landscape, so you ask yourself, what is it that most attracts you to this scene, and that’s what you try to paint. Sometimes I like to add a building or an animal to a landscape to spice things up,” muses Joachim, “while other times I decide the landscape is interesting enough without that.”

Joachim will also introduce several abstract paintings at the show in Manayunk. “I used to think abstract painting was much easier, but to do it well is actually harder than more representational painting. And it is much more personal, too. It’s quite a demonstration of technique to create a design that is beautiful, profound or symbolic, that comes completely from yourself. You can’t fall back and just paint what you see.” One of his abstract paintings is bright yellow, with a martini glass and other joyous shapes, a scene that just seems to say, “Let’s party.”

Clearly Joachim is having fun with his art, which he came to relatively late in life. “When I was a kid, my art teacher basically told me I had no talent, so I did not pursue it.” In 1989 Joachim took a drawing class at Cheltenham High Evening School. For the last 15 years he has taken painting lessons from Tom Stiegerwald, and the last 10 from Janet McShain, both acclaimed artists who not only taught him technique but inspired him as well. Today Joachim and McShain are founding members of the Manayunk Artists’ Co-Op. Undoubtedly pleasing to both of them, McShain was the featured artist of the exhibit that preceded Joachim’s.

In addition to Joachim’s work, other members of the Manayunk Artists’ Co-Op will present quality original artwork in various media at affordable prices. Several Co-Op members studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and they come from many neighborhoods and careers. Lawyers, teachers, photojournalists, illustrators, workers for criminal justice and public welfare are included. The physical building is a two story brick treasure which was a working horse stable in the 19th century.

The show featuring the work of Bob Joachim and others in the Manayunk Artists’ Co-Op will open Sunday, March 5, noon to 3 p.m. The public can meet Bob Joachim, view his art and enjoy light refreshments. The show will run through March 26. Gallery hours are Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The gallery is at 419 Green Lane (rear), between Mitchell and Pechin streets, one-and-a-half blocks down from Ridge Avenue. For more information, call 215-482-3363 (leave message) or visit www.manayunkartcenter.org.