 Michael Chesley Johnson
Meet Michael Chesley Johnson. Michael began his love for art early in life and it has endured career changes to become a passion and livelihood.
“I’ve loved to draw and paint since a child. I remember growing up in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s watching ‘Learn to Draw’ with Jon Gnagy, an art education show out of New York. I also admired the Old Masters and spent many hours poring over books with reproductions of their work. Although I went on to get two degrees in English Literature - B.A. University of Georgia, M.A. Middlebury College - I continued to practice my skills. Ten years ago, after a long career in computers, I returned to my first love and began to paint seriously. I am mostly self-taught and have taken workshops with artists I admire.”
 Michael is inspired, of course, by the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. “I am particularly drawn to the American Impressionists and today’s contemporary landscape painters. I have studied with Bob Rohm, Albert Handell and Ray Roberts, among others. I consider Ann Templeton, a Texas painter, to be my mentor.”
“I enjoy creating traditional, representational landscapes in oil or pastel. I’m drawn to rural landscapes, but I also like to paint buildings - the older and more ramshackle the better. A Romantic at heart, I think the landscape is a thing of beauty and should be represented as such.”
Michael paints in both oil and pastel. His method for each is mostly alla prima, and for oil, wet-into-wet. He works mostly outdoors, and often finishes paintings in the studio. “I’d have to say I’m a committed outdoor painter - my studio is a workplace of last resort. The studio does, however, have its place, and I use it to critique my work, analyze it and to refine it.”
Michael’s credits and credentials include the following:
Michael is a Master Pastelist of Pastel Artists Canada, a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America and the Pastel Society of New Mexico, as well as a juried member of Oil Painters of America and other prestigious groups. His work has been in shows in both the US and Canada and has been published in The Artist’s Magazine, The Pastel Journal, American Artist and Fine Art Connoisseur (Plein Air Magazine).
Michael teaches throughout North America and also conducts intensive workshops at Friar’s Bay Studio Gallery on Campobello Island in the Canadian Maritimes and in Sedona, Arizona. All students, from beginner to professional artists, praise his relaxed but helpful manner of teaching. He has taught at workshop centers and for art groups such as: Art Barn (IN); Acadia Workshop Center (ME); Sedona Arts Center (AZ); Old Forge Arts Center (NY); Sunbury Shores Art & Nature Centre (NB); Pastel Artists Canada (ON); New Hampshire Plein Air (NH); Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod (MA); York Art Association (ME): Springfield Area Pastelists (IL); Los Reyes Gallery (AZ); Bay River Art Guild (AL); Roswell Museum (NM); Hubbard Museum of the American West (NM); ArtCenter Traverse City (MI);Lawrence Academy (MA) and Cloudcroft Art Workshops (NM).
Michael is the author of the books, Backpacker Painting: Outdoors with Pastel & Oil, Through a Painter’s Brush: A Year on Campobello Island and The Art of Ann Templeton: A Step Beyond. He writes regularly for The Pastel Journal, and is a Contributing Editor for The Artist’s Magazine.
Michael lives on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, in the Canadian Maritimes and in Sedona, Arizona. Winter studio: www.PumphouseStudioGallery.com. Summer studio: www.FriarsBayGallery.com.
www.MichaelChesleyJohnson.com
http://mchesleyjohnson.blogspot.com
www.PaintSedona.com
mcj.painter@gmail.com
|
