Janice DiBattista Allen, age 73, passed away at her home in Noank on March 6, 2013, after a four year struggle with ovarian cancer. She leaves her loving family and many friends who will miss her and are grateful to have known her. She lived a life filled with passion for people, for art, for teaching and helping others, and for fun.
Born April 17, 1939, in Hartford, she was the daughter of Theresa and James Cosma. Janice graduated in 1957 from Wethersfield High School and in 1981 received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Connecticut, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with Distinction in Painting. Subsequently, for eleven years, she was a Director of Art at the Williams School in New London. She also taught at the Lyman Allyn Museum and held watercolor workshops in the Groton school system through a grant from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. In 1981 she married Stephen Allen, who survives her.
Janice’s career as a visual artist was expressed in paintings of the land, sea, and sky. Art reviewer Michael Burlingame once described her works of flowers and landscapes as “generating swirling energy fields.” Her paintings hold all of the New England seasons, inspired by nature’s images and the shapes, colors, and patterns that they form. Her painted fields of flowers wild and real, images of landscapes capturing winter’s glacial shadows, and the palette of colors in an autumn marsh lit by sun grace the walls of her Noank home, and are included in private and public collections in the United States and Europe. Janice’s passion for teaching was rooted in the delight she felt when she recognized or helped to create an artistic spark in a student’s eye, as well as in her desire to extend that creative delight to everyone. She also shared a love of life, laughter, and art with a group of longtime artist friends, whose painting trips to Europe and throughout New England led to special group shows, many fun-filled stories, and warm memories for all of them. She was a member of the American Society of Marine Artists, Connecticut Plein Air Painters Society, and an elected member of the following: Lyme Art Association, Mystic Arts Center, Connecticut Watercolor Society, Connecticut Woman Artists, New Haven Paint and Clay Club, Monotype Guild of New England, Monotypes Today, Essex Art Association, and the Connecticut Academy of Fine Art. Her awards were numerous. She was especially pleased when she was awarded Best Landscape Artist in the annual Mystic Outdoor Art Show.
She was a member of the Ram Island Yacht Club and the Noank Historical Society. As wife and mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, cousin, and friend, Jan thoroughly enjoyed hosting gatherings for holidays and family celebrations where everyone was welcome. In addition to Steve, she is survived by her brothers Pat Cosma of Westerly and James Cosma and sister Mary Gene Cosma of Wethersfield and daughter Denise Pierson of Stonington, along with grandsons Brian O’Mara and Second Lt. Christopher Moffett.
A memorial service, celebrating Janice’s life, will be held in the summer. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Mystic Arts Center in Janice’s honor. The Dinoto Funeral Home, 17 Pearl St., Mystic is assisting the family.
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