Dream Spa Medical Featured Artist of February: Andy Jonic

While most kindergarteners are quick to rush outside for recess, Andy Jonic remembers doing something different as a child.
 
“Kids would go out to the playground,” he recalled, “and I’d stay behind in the classroom to draw.”
 
Even back then, Andy was far more interested in observing the world and translating it onto paper than joining the crowd outside. That instinct to notice light, form, and space shapes Andy’s profession five decades later. By day, he is an Associate Principal at William Rawn Associates, Architects Inc. in Boston, contributing to major institutional projects such as schools, libraries, and performing arts facilities across New England and beyond. His portfolio includes recent projects at Noble and Greenough, Brookline High School, Colby College, and the Boston Public Library. Alongside his career, Andy is also a watercolor painter whose work centers on landscapes. Painting is a creative outlet, rooted in early influences and sustained by lifelong curiosity.
 
Andy has been a Westwood resident since 2008 with his wife, Melisa, who works at the Westwood Public Library, and their children, Peter and Elle, both students at Westwood High School.
 
As a child in his hometown of Ridgefield, Connecticut, he loved playing outside, building forts out of logs and stones in the woods, and drawing whenever he could. That combination of observing and creating followed him to high school at Fairfield Prep in Connecticut, where he studied art for four years under teacher Frank Bramble, gaining both technical foundation and confidence.
 
Summers spent in Chatham proved especially formative. There, Andy learned watercolor painting from his parents’ next-door neighbor, Jack Garver, a professional artist and teacher who worked full-time in the medium. Garver’s influence extended beyond lessons; Andy grew up with his paintings in the house, studying how brushstrokes, light, and restraint came together on paper.
 
“For that reason, I was drawn to watercolors,” Andy said. “Watercolor painting can be challenging because it is difficult to control the way water and paint react on paper, but a fun challenge that can lead to unexpectedly exciting results.”
 
Watercolor requires decisiveness and attention, qualities that continue to resonate with both Andy’s artistic and architectural sensibilities. Although art remained important, architecture became Andy’s primary profession.
 
“I was accepted into the Architecture program at Miami University, with an interest in becoming an architect. After the first few weeks of classes, I fell in love with architecture and decided that’s what I wanted to do for a living,” Andy said. “Architecture offered a way to combine my creativity with math, science, engineering, and communication; it’s all-encompassing.”
 
While earning a Master of Architecture at MIT, he was encouraged to express architectural designs through gestural drawing and model making by his studio professor and thesis advisor Jan Wampler. He also took drawing courses at the Harvard Graduate School of Design taught by artist Anne McGhee. Andy began working at William Rawn Associates full-time in 2001. Whenever possible, he incorporates observing, drawing, and artistic thinking into the design process.
 
“I always use my artistic skills when we’re designing buildings,” he said.
 
Painting, however, offers something architecture does not.
 
“Painting allows me to take a mental and physical break from what I do during the day. I find that I tend to paint more in the winter than in the summer,” he said, noting that drier air changes how watercolor behaves and allows the paint to dry faster.
 
Andy describes his work as realism, guided by moments of visual clarity rather than commercial intent.
 
“There are certain things I see in the landscape that inspire me to paint it. We go to the Fourth of July parade in Chatham every year, and one year I was standing outside the library watching people gather to see the parade. The library’s flagpole split the crowd: Half in shadow, half in the sunlight, and I remember thinking it felt like a painting. So I painted that scene. I never know when inspiration is going to strike, but it’s exciting to try to capture the essence of what you’re seeing.”
 
Another moment of inspiration came more recently in the Province Lands south of Provincetown.
 
“There was snow everywhere, gray skies overhead, and limited direct light. Off in the distance, the sun broke through the clouds and illuminated the Cape Cod Bay, while everything in front of me stayed in shadow. It was freezing cold, and there was no one around, but it was kind of beautiful. For whatever reason, it was just a sublime landscape that felt like I needed to paint.”
 
Andy has been a member of the Westwood Artists group for about eight years, after meeting Carol Ahearn at a neighborhood gathering. He has participated in exhibitions at the Senior Center and Westwood Public Library and hopes to become more involved as his schedule allows. Andy has also exhibited his paintings at the Creative Arts Center in Chatham.
 
Looking ahead, Andy holds a long-term goal connected to his mentor. Jack Garver was a long-time Signature Member of the American Watercolor Society, which hosts an international exhibition each year at the Salmagundi Club in New York City.
 
“I’m not quite there yet, but I plan on continuing to paint to hopefully earn Signature Membership.”
 
For now, watercolor remains both an outlet and a passion, one that allows Andy to pause, observe, and preserve fleeting landscapes into long-lasting memories.
 
Congratulations Andy for being our February Featured Artist! If you’d like to nominate an artist of any sort to be featured – music, acting, painting, drawing, sculpture, etc. – please email dbezdedeanu@bestversionmedia.com