ANY IDEAS FOR A HEADLINE? ANY IDEAS FOR A HEADLINE? (October 26, 2001)

Retired nurse reunites with her love of art

By Amy Goodpaster Strebe

Josephine Vincent's love affair with art began in grade school when her teachers would reprimand her for drawing young men and women's legs and other body parts rather than studying her texts.

Her love continued to grow while in nursing school, when she would draw the bones of the body in her anatomy classes, paying close attention to the deep crevasses and forms of their structure. Vincent found this method a good way to remember the names of the bones for her exams.

Vincent, who is originally from Rye, England, a coastal town near Dover in the southern part of the country, moved to Mountain View in 1974. For 26 years she worked as a nurse at the Veterans Health Center in Menlo Park, before retiring this year.

In 1984 she earned a Master's degree in marriage and family counseling from Santa Clara University. She has spent the majority of her career counseling and nursing patients recovering from chemical dependency.

Vincent has been in recovery herself for 15 years, and continues to help others through the Alcoholics Anonymous program.

"I was looking for a place to settle that had warm weather and a good school district for my daughter," she said. "As a nurse I found a lot of job opportunities here, and since I love nature, I really liked Mountain View's diversity."

Four decades later Vincent has been reunited with her first passion - art. Three years ago she joined the Packard Art Studio in Los Altos where she started painting and conversing with fellow artists.Before joining the studio, she had no formal art training.

"My vision of retirement was that I would sleep in as late as I wanted, but I've been so busy it hasn't been quite like that," she laughed

Vincent, who paints in acrylic, is currently showing her artwork in an exhibition at Borders Café at in Los Gatos through Oct. 31. Her first public show features 12 of her paintings, including her yoga series, inspired by her daughter Rebecca, who is a yoga instructor.

"My daughters are very inspiring and they help give me subject matter and ideas for my paintings." An avid hiker and outdoors person, Vincent said she also gets inspiration for her artwork from nature. She describes her style as "minimalist line work over landscapes."

Vincent, who will be returning home to Rye soon for six weeks, is busy painting a series of small paintings that depict her hometown. "This is very different work for me because I usually do big paintings with large brushstrokes, so this can feel constricting," she said. "I hope to bring 10 to 15 small paintings with me on the trip that will be sold in a shop in Rye."

For her Rye series, Vincent said she used photographs and magazines, as well as her own memories of the town, to draw ideas from.

Situated in the heart of the Sussex countryside, Rye is a medieval port town that was originally granted to the Abbey of Fecamp in Normandy in 1027 but was reclaimed by Henry III in 1247 in exchange for other lands. Vincent, who left England in 1960 for Canada, where she lived for eight years, is planning a move back to Rye, which she said is a popular destination for tourists who come there to buy Rye pottery and artwork from local craftspeople and artisans.

Vincent said she counts Jackson Pollack, Emily Carr, Louise Bourgeois and Milton Avery among her favorite artists. "What's great about going to the studio is that I can get away from the phone at home, and it's really calming," she said. "It's also a stimulating environment and it's helpful to get good criticism from other painters."

Her current exhibit is at Borders Café, 50 University Ave. in Los Gatos.