From sculpting an elephant out of clay in kindergarten to creating fabulous bronze commissions, Cinthia Joyce has been immersed in art since she was old enough to hold a pencil - or a needle and thread.

“I’ve always done art, even as a baby,” says the Hill Section resident of thirty-five years. At the age of three, she laid down on a piece of fabric, cut out a dress, and wore it to the market. That same creativity and fearless innovation has carried her through decades of artistic expression, from fashion design and painting to high-end sculpture and gallery shows.

Cinthia’s childhood home on Point Dume in Malibu was a whirlwind of creativity. Her father was a police detective, her mother raised five kids, horses and many pets. The whole family was inherently artistic but with all those kids a bit short on cash. “You can just make that if you want that!” was the family motto. They sewed costumes, tore down and painted walls, built furniture, and made everything from scratch. “We thought everyone lived like that,” she laughs. “Turns out, not quite.”

With a natural eye for form and detail, Cinthia majored in art history at UCLA. Studying the work of fine artists informed the artist she would become today. She took Interior Design at UCLA Extension. Then she worked for several years at the glamorous Kneedler-Fauchere in the newly erected Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles, before launching her own interior design business, Cinthia Joyce Fine Arts. 

As a mother of young children, she started a home boutique business called The Silly Goose, making wreaths and other accessories, which morphed into Chateau Chantilly, and eventually into her handmade elf doll business, The Royal Elferie. The high end designer dolls sold in boutiques, art galleries, and stores such as Neiman Marcus. She ran that business for 25 years, designing, sewing, and painting her collectible dolls by hand, then marketing them wholesale and shipping them off all over the country.

Today her artistic practice is as rich and varied as ever. She aims to spread joy and beauty in every way she can. She believes those qualities bring peace to the world and should be cultivated so they can grow.

 

She paints and sculpts in both abstract and realistic styles, Her subject matter varies from animals and figurative to abstractions. “I’m inspired by form,” she says. Her deep dive into anatomy, from intense study during a period of over five years of master classes, gives her sculptures depth, accuracy, and spirit.

Her résumé is as impressive as her imagination. Cinthia was commissioned to create a whale sculpture by the Long Family Foundation which graces the entry to the Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes. A 7.5-foot bronze “Atlas” was featured at the Autry Museum by the California Art Club Gold Medal Exhibition, and she created all the award medals and sculptures commissioned by the Torrance Performing Arts Consortium. Her work has been displayed in galleries across the country. Every Tuesday, she conducts sculpting classes to adults in her home studio, and sometimes teaches workshops, so contact her if you’d like to join in and learn how to carry on the tradition of sculpting!

One of her most beloved daily rituals is “Breakfast on the Bayou,” a meditative morning routine she has done for years for herself and now shares with a global community on Facebook. Each day, Cinthia sets a lush table in her intimate sheltered patio fern and bamboo garden using her antique porcelain teapots. She has more than 250 in her carefully curated collection! She plants flowers to go with the colors of her porcelain, creates a fresh bouquet to coordinate with her place setting and photographs and documents it for a book and calendar she is working on. 

She spends special time dining on her delicious breakfast, sipping her favorite teas from her special teapots, and basking in the nurturing qualities of all that beauty. She reads inspirational books, and writes in her gratitude journal in the stillness and heavenly privacy of her little Garden of Eden. Her Facebook posts have found a worldwide connection over the shared joy of collecting teapots.

She sometimes hostesses tea parties on the harvest table in her spacious, art filled dining room. Her antique French armoires are filled with teapots. Her favorite at the moment? An elegant periwinkle blue one with hand painted flowers and plenty of gold gilding from 1850, in the “Old Paris” style, very “Gigi.” “It’s my favorite,” she smiles, “until tomorrow.”

Cinthia and her husband, Peter- a recently retired neuroradiologist who practiced at Torrance Memorial and St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica - have lived in Manhattan Beach since 1976, first in the Tree Section and now in the Hill Section for the last 34 years. Their Neoclassical home with tall fluted columns and rose and flower-filled garden still feel as magical today as they did when they first moved in. “It’s our nest,” she says. “We are in love with it as if we just moved in yesterday.” The locals often refer to it as “Tara” or “The White House.”

Their two children and four grandchildren live nearby in Manhattan Beach. Son Britt Joyce works at Regatta Capital Group, MBA, CFA, CFP® Managing Partner, Financial Advisor, Co-CIO & Director of Endowments & Foundations, and daughter Caneel Joycel—a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Industrial Relations from UC Berkeley is a CEO Coach and Podcaster for ALLOWED podcast, available on Spotify. The four grandkids frequently visit and love doing art projects and having tea parties and games with “Glammy,” picking out their favorite teapots from the French armoires.

For Cinthia Joyce, everything flows together - art, beauty, family, spirituality and creative energy. Whether she’s painting or sculpting or composing a table setting and photographing it, she’s creating joy with every thoughtful detail. She is filled with passionate vitality and plans to keep happily creating art in a very long and happy life.

You may also email her at: cinthiajoyceartist@gmail.com