Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Mitchell Johnson painting "Paris (Green)" in November 21, 2021 New York Times Magazine

 



The Mitchell Johnson painting, "Paris (Green)" on the inside backcover of the November 21, 2021 New York Times Magazine.

This painting is sold. Request a digital catalog of available work by emailing:

mitchell.catalog@gmail.com


Follow on instagram: mitchell_johnson_artist

Read a recent interview at, Painting Perceptions, or listen to an interview on the podcast, I Like Your Work.


Mitchell Johnson Sinalunga Painting in November 14, 2021 New York Times Magazine

 



Mitchell Johnson painting, "Sinalunga" in the November 14, 2021 New York Times Magazine.

This paintings is sold. Request a digital catalog of available work by emailing:

mitchell.catalog@gmail


Follow on instagram: mitchell_johnson_artist

Read a recent interview at, Painting Perceptions, or listen to an interview on the podcast, I Like Your Work.

Two Mitchell Johnson paintings on the backcover of the March 8, 2021 New Yorker Magazine

 



Two Mitchell Johnson paintings, "Yellow Table" and "Water Towers" on the backcover of the March 8, 2021 New Yorker Magazine.

Both of these paintings are sold. Request a digital catalog of available work by emailing:

mitchell.catalog@gmail


Follow on instagram: mitchell_johnson_artist

Read a recent interview at, Painting Perceptions, or listen to an interview on the podcast, I Like Your Work.

Two Mitchell Johnson paintings on back cover of July 5, 2021 New Yorker Magazine

 


Two Mitchell Johnson paintings, "North Truro (Fehmarn)" and "Provincetown Table on the backcover of the July 5, 2021 New Yorker Magazine.

Both of these paintings are sold. Request a digital catalog of available work by emailing:

mitchell.catalog@gmail


Follow on instagram: mitchell_johnson_artist

Read a recent interview at, Painting Perceptions, or listen to an interview on the podcast, I Like Your Work.

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Repost of Bonnnie Gangelhoff's 2003 article on Mitchell Johnson

This is a 2003 article and cover story from Southwest Art Magazine. The original magazine is available here


 Painter Mitchell Johnson is inspired by California and New Mexico landscapes | By Bonnie Gangelhoff


IN 1990 MITCHELL JOHNSON TRAVELED CROSS-COUNTRY FROM NEW York to California to begin working as a studio assistant for artist Sam Francis. Johnson had just received his master`s degree from New York`s Parsons School of Design and was keen on a West Coast adventure. "I didn`t really expect to stay in California, but the practical aspects of being able to paint outside all year really started to appeal to me," Johnson says from his home in Menlo Park.

In addition, the dramatic West Coast landscape engaged him in a way that the East Coast`s natural wonders had not, he says. The powerful shoreline, the rocky coast, and the soft hills leading down to the Pacific Ocean inspired and challenged his artistic eye. Today Johnson, 38, has become known for his colorful and panoramic renderings of the Golden State, including bucolic scenes not far from his home, such as the farms of fertile Central California and the vineyards that dot the picturesque Northern California wine country.

This month the Triton Museum in Santa Clara, CA, is honoring the painter with a oneman exhibition of his works as part of its continuing series, New Works by California Artists. The exhibit opened in January and runs through March 9. It features Johnson`s rural landscapes, which capture the light and atmosphere of the terrain in California as well as in Italy. The show also displays a sampling of Johnson`s figurative paintings, which are reminiscent of those of David Park [1911-- 1960], the well-known Bay Area painter.

In addition to being included in more than 200 private collections, Johnson`s works are in the permanent collections of a number of museums, such as the Oakland Museum Art Foundation, the Laguna Art Museum, the Frederick R. Weisman Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, NM.

Although he lives in California, Johnson has developed a habit over the past decade of beating a path to different painting haunts, depending on the season: fall in New Mexico and summer in Italy and France. He packs two gigantic duffel bags with portable painting gear and throws in a few clothes to see him through the journeys. The expeditions are akin to safaris, he says, because he is totally selfsufficient. Johnson used to stay a few months at a time on his art "safaris," but that was before he had a family. Now the trips are more likely to last two weeks.

When he returns home to California with his canvases in tow, they reflect his fascination not only with the subject matter itself but also with the order of things inherent in the ever-- changing landscape. It`s been said of Johnson that he is like a farmer who pays close attention to the fields and weather as they change with the seasons. "It`s really wonderful that my job keeps me so in touch with the seasons," he says.

In his wife, Donia, he has found a soul mate who shares this passion, albeit in a totally different way. She owns a popular restaurant, L`amie Donia, a French bistro in Palo Alto known for its flair for incorporating seasonal vegetables and fruits, such as beets, fennel, peaches, almonds, and leeks. The bistro regularly showcases Johnson`s artwork on its walls-- works that depict the lush farmland where such produce is grown. For example, in Johnson`s SAN GREGORIO (PUMPKINS), orange flecks depicting the bulbous vegetable speckle a California landscape.

Each place-California, New Mexico, and Italy-appeals to him for different reasons, he says. "For example, New Mexico hits you upside the head," Johnson explains. "There`s a strong flavor-the way reds and earth colors look with the shapes of the small hills peppered with pinon trees [as in MUST BE RIO CHIQUITO]. It`s like being on a moonscape, it`s so different than other places."

MUST BE RIO CHIQUITO is also a good example of Johnson`s effort to achieve a balance between solidity and disintegration. He gives the viewer a sense of nature as a solid entity yet employs the paint to create a loose rendering of the lush scene. At the same time he manages to convey the expansive feeling of space that is unique to the Southwest.

Johnson is primarily a colorist-rather than sketching preliminary drawings, he applies paint directly to the canvas to create the shapes he desires. In each painting he tries to let the work gradually lead him to the right composition.

He paints both on location and in the studio-that is, in the back yard of his home, where he makes use of the Northern California sunlight. Must BE RIO CHIQUITO is an example of an onlocation landscape painting; it was completed in northern New Mexico on a recent art safari. To create the 40-by-70-inch work, Johnson says he jerry-rigged the canvas to his pickup truck`s tailgate using bungee cords. Whether he is painting on location or in his "studio," the natural quality he evokes is the result of many outdoor hours viewing colors and patterns. "My compositions are hard won," he says.

For Johnson, the benefits of painting outdoors are many. As he wrote in a catalog published by I. Wolk Galleries in St. Helena, CA, in 2000, "There is a certain anxiety always present when I work on location. I begin expecting something from the painting, and yet I almost always surrender that initial excitement," Johnson says. "Once I`ve surrendered there is a greater intimacy, and the painting follows the lead of the place. The place begins to reveal itself. It`s a magical moment-it`s where the painting becomes more than an illustration or just a report of weather or light."

When asked about his goals for the future, Johnson replies, "Right now I am in the middle of what I want to be doing when I`m 80 years old." His model for the artist`s life well-lived is Terry St. John, the prominent Bay Area painter who is a central figure in the revival of outdoor painting in Northern California. "The more I see his work, the more I respect him. He is a great example of someone who built his life around painting and continues to grow and to challenge himself instead of resting on his laurels," Johnson says. "He doesn`t produce the same painting over and over again. He understands that art is about the work and not repeating yourself. And I couldn`t agree more."

Landscape Painting

According to Johnson

Whether I develop a painting on location or in the studio, I always try to hold onto the initial excitement that began it and to let that excitement become a physical com-ponent of the work. One painting may have a light surface where others will get thicker as the com-position demands it Some of the paintings are about large shapes, others are about the problem of detail.

The landscape and beach are my motifs, but perhaps painting is my subject A friend of mine once said that we are painters who look like we are painting on the outside when we are actually painting on the inside." I try to let each painting lead me as it is being arranged and resolved. I resist anticipating its conclusion. The compositions I get involved with, as diverse as they are, all share an instinctive attempt to grow-to better understand color, to become a more interesting painter, to make paintings which are challenging yet accessible.

Saturday, November 13, 2021

Nov 13, 2021 WSJ Magazine Innovators Issue Page 52

 



Two Mitchell Johnson paintings appear in the WSJ Magazine November, 2021 Innovators issue which has multiple covers.

Request a catalog of available work: mitchell.catalog@gmail

Tuesday, November 9, 2021

Mitchell Johnson Paintings on Page 35 of December 2021 Architectural Digest

 



Two Mitchell Johnson paintings, "Cape Porpoise," 2021 and "North Truro (Bernard)," 2021 24x36 inches oil/linen appear on page 35 of the December, 2021 Architectural Digest.

Repost of Susan Emerling's 2004 Artnews Review of Mitchell Johnson at Terrence Rogers Fine Art

 Contrary to the claim in the December, 2018, Nob Hill Gazette Magazine, Mitchell Johnson exhibited widely between 1990-2010 in major galleries in New York (Tatistcheff Gallery), San Francisco (Hackett Freedman & Campbell-Thiebaud), Santa Fe (Munson Gallery & Mitchell, Brown Fine Art), Denver (Robischon), Baltimore (Grimaldis Gallery) and Richmond (Reynolds Gallery).

Here is a review of a 2003 exhibit of Mitchell Johnson at Terrence Rogers Fine Art published in Artnews in 2004.

Mitchell Johnson at Terrence Rogers Fine Art

Santa Monica May, 2003


Review from Artnews Magazine June, 2004, Page 119


Mitchell Johnson’s latest oil paintings of European beach scenes are fresh and pleasing. Using large brushy strokes and bright, often improbable colors, Johnson gives dynamic form to everyday life with an Impressionistic sensibility. 


In the 2003 work, Numana & Hossegor, Johnson depicts bathers heading into the sea. The surf is rendered as an abstract swath of frothy white set against a vibrant green horizon. The sand is a field of neon orange, creating a visual correlative for the feel of heat on one’s feet.


In the 2003 work, Bornholm (Yellow Raft), Johnson turns an inflated lime-green inner tube, held by a sun kissed child marching across white sand, into a geometric abstraction. The artist balances the composition with a large yellow rectangular raft held by another beach goer. Both figures cast cool blue shadows, perfectly capturing the late-afternoon light of a sunny day at the beach. In a series of smaller canvases, Johnson eliminated the figures and zeroed in on geometric patterns, such as the radiating stripes of beach umbrellas.


Also on view were eight small canvases painted on the island of Bornholm, Denmark, that picture A-frame houses in bright blocks of color against flat blue skies. The clean, crisp homes looked intimate and inviting, but the landscapes seemed timeless and empty, forlorn in a way that recalls Edward Hopper’s small-town scenes.


Four small canvases depicting Italian construction workers against globe fields of color were less about the individuals than the work being performed, and they demonstrated how Johnson’s energetic brushwork lends itself to representing movement. Overall, the exhibition revealed the sure hand of a devoted colorist able to extract visual tension from the world around him.

-Susan Emerling