Joy Clements was born at Burwell, Suffolk in 1921 and was educated in Kingston, Surrey. She moved to Ireland in the 1960's. and has been painting professionally since the 1970's. An early tutor was the eminent Belfast artist John Turner R.U.A. Her painting at this time contained symbolism relating to the Hindu concept of the mandala and the dream-vision theories of Jung and she continues to explore and develop this theme from time to time in many of her paintings. In 1978 she was elected to the Ulster Society Of Women Artists and was awarded the Perpetual Trophy for the most outstanding work in their annual exhibition. She served as Honorary Secretary of this Society for three years, receiving her Diploma in 1980. The year 1979 marked her first successful one-woman show at the Malone Art Gallery, with which she exhibited for the next four years, along with Wilfred Haughton and Tom Carr. In 1982 she visited Baronscourt, Co. Tyrone, and completed two pastel portraits of the Duchess of Abercorn, one of which was shown that year in the R.U.A.

She was President of the Ulster Society of Women Artists from 1981 to 1984. In 1983 she was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Ulster Academy and a member of the Ulster Watercolour Society, of which she was Hon. Sec. for ten years and subsequently Chairperson and President until 1996. Joy Clements has been a regular exhibitor in many prominent galleries, including the Bell Gallery, the Eakin Gallery, the Mc Gilloway Gallery, the Jonathan Swift Gallery and the Ulster Watercolour Society. In 1991 she was awarded a prize at Belfast City Hall and in 1998 she won the Max Maccabe Rose Bowl for painting from the Ulster Society of Women Artists.

Her paintings are included in many prestigious collections. The Diploma Collection of The Royal Ulster Academy, The U.T.V. collection, Irish National Self Portrait Gallery, Limerick. The Civil Service Collection, The Education and Library Board as well as many private collections.

Subject material covers figure drawings, portraiture, landscape etc. Sometime moving from a more representational style towards expressionism and imagination. Pastel has been the dominant medium, but work is also produced in oils, watercolour and allied media.