Louise Johnson
member of Santa Rosa Art Guild

Louise Johnson grew up loving art. When she began painting she studied under Robert Wood of Bishop, Clinton Conley of Healdsburg, and took workshops from Tony Van Hasselt, Zoltan Szabo, Dale Laitenen, E. John Robinson, Judi Betts, and others. Her work in oils and watercolors is representational. In her landscapes and seascapes she attempts to create the beauty and the moods of nature. Her inspiration is often from the Sonoma County, the High Sierra, and the Southwest red rock areas.

Click on any image to ZOOM.

Artist Statement

The word "art" is like quicksilver in one's hand. While we are trying to define it, it slips away magically between our fingers, defying all rational explanation. And so we find ourselves ever pursuing it, making subjective guesses about its nature, marveling over its many facets, never quite being able to communicate to others just what art is to us personally.

To attempt to define art is as futile as it would be to try to count the bubbles in the foam of a great breaker taking its tidal bites out of a beach, or to calculate the number of grains of sand it displaces with each bite.

I cannot explain my art to you. My paintings grow from a fierce love of nature and of the God Who created all things beautiful. It is representational, yet not photographic. It is sometimes muted, becauseI am sometims an introvert. It is sometimes brilliant almost to the point of gaudiness, because I am occasionally a momentary extrovert. It has expressive skies because when I look up I see God's love. It teems with flowers, trees, mountains, and coastlines because I love these things. It occasionally has ole teetering buildings, because I respect rusty roofs and molding lichen-covered timbers for the stories they could tell of days gone by.

I look at life through eyes of undying curiosity and fascination, and I find it beautiful. Hence flow my paintings --- my art. Come enjoy it with me.

A selection of Louise Johnson's work can be seen at the Upstairs Art Gallery, 306 Center Street, Healdsburg, California.