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.