Joan was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on the 24th June 1940. She studied graphic art at Michaelis Art School Cape Town (1957-1958) and studied Fine Art with Sidney Goldblatt for several years. She worked in Fibre Art and puppetry; mainly shadow theatre.

She won the HAUM Daan Retief Publishers Competition for children’s book illustration in 1986 and the Oppenheim toy portfolio gold award in 2003.

Joan has participated in exhibitions in Barcelona, Bratislava, Sarmede, Italy, New York and Japan.

Her books have been published in Europe, UK, USA, South America and Korea.