From the Royal Academy to Park Lane Stables, meet volunteer extraordinaire Joy

Joy in her garden with Rusty (who’s loving the personal supply of fresh grass)

If you remember the painting Goodnight Kiss, created during our fundraising campaign, then you’ve already ‘met’ Joy.

Her painting showed a little girl who visited Trigger at the cuddle door every night, always after dark, to kiss the pony goodnight. It became a powerful symbol of what would be lost if the Stables closed, and two original versions of it were sold as part of the fundraising efforts.

Goodnight Kiss

In 2020 Joy was at home shielding – and while neighbours might have been making sourdough, Joy was kept busy 7 days a week painting over 70 commissioned watercolours to sell for the fundraiser! She was also the first person to be visited at home by Annie’s Whizz at the start of the #TinyPonyAtYourWindow initiative that was to become a big national media story.

Joy is one of an army of volunteers who come from all walks of life to support Park Lane Stables. She modestly describes herself as a ‘jobbing artist since the 1960s’, but her work has included sculptor on the Thunderbirds series (for those of you old enough to remember it!), and the moonscapes on Stanley Kubrick’s film ‘2001 – A Space Odyssey’. She’s been in constant demand for commissions over the decades, has exhibited at the Royal Academy, and now finds herself ‘artist in residence’ for Park Lane Stables.

Like many of the Park Lane family, Joy’s love of horses started early, helping out at her local stables in all weathers as a child in exchange for rides. She’s been volunteering at Park Lane for around 8 years, helping to run the RDA sessions for children and adults with disabilities.

What motivates her? The answer’s easy.

“Every so often you are privileged to observe a truly exceptional event like helping a young man totally blind from birth discover what a horse ‘looks’ like through exploring with his fingertips. All while the horse patiently stands motionless – they have an intuitive understanding of people who are vulnerable.

I also love seeing the development of the participants, from nervous and withdrawn to confident and sociable.”

If you visit the stables you might see Joy around, perhaps running a regular craft session with our adult RDA group, or painting faces. If she’s not there she might be hard at work making costumes for the RDA Fancy Dress class entry at the annual Royal Windsor Horse Show.

And now Joy has added something new to her bulging portfolio – the new Park Lane Stables logo. The profiles of two people look up to, and are snuggled into, the head of a happy horse.

Thank you, Joy!