Robert Johnson

"Robert Johnson's (1944- ) artwork is inspired by a passion for the outdoors and is a journey of biology, cultural and spiritual discovery. He is most influenced by late Italian medieval painting, non western art forms and naïve or folk painters. Through his painting, Johnson seeks to intensify people's relationship with the environment and to endow them with a more explicit appreciation for place. His fellowships and grants include the North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship for Ecuador Project, a National Endowment for the Arts Southern Arts Federation Artist Grant, a North Carolina Arts Council Special Project Grant for State Park Series, Headlands Center for the Arts Residency, Sausalito, CA, and a Martin Luther King Fellowship, Fine Arts Center, Provincetown, MA.
He has exhibited in North Carolina and South Carolina. His commissions include a mural on Main Street in West Jefferson, NC, North Carolina State Public Arts Program at the University of North Carolina in Asheville and a fresco at the Burnsville Post Office in Burnsville, NC. Johnson's work is in the collections of the Morris Museum in Augusta, GA, the Chaim Gross Collection in New York and the Emil Arnold Collection also in New York."


Artist Statement

"My work is concerned with the Natural environment. I’ve had people say, “if you are so concerned, why you don’t paint about the disastrous consequences many of our actions are having on it?”

As I see, it there are two approaches one can take to try and change our actions. One can either use a carrot or a stick. Both approaches are needed . I have chosen the carrot approach to try and foster a deeper appreciation for what is left of wild Nature. In my work I focus on the beauty and sacredness of Nature. I feel like a medieval pilgrim on a pilgrimage to the world’s last remaining cathedrals. I record my observations while there and bring my notes back to the studio to develop paintings that capture my experiences of these places.

The kind of art that has most influenced the style of my work is religious art from the late medieval period in Italy, Indian Miniature Painting, Tibetan Thangka painting, Balinese painting, and Folk Art, all of which I have studied and from which I have freely stolen.

My interest in Botany, Ornithology, Mycology, Entomology, and other Natural Science disciplines comes from a desire to understand and get more deeply connected with the environment in which I find myself." [Source: Artist Website http://robertjohnsonpaintings.com/ (accessed January 3, 2019)]