Biography
One way or another, my life and work has always revolved around landscape. My father, Brad Johnson was a well-known Landscape Architect; his father ran Johnson's Nurseries in Kingston and my other grandfather ran lumber mills in northeastern Ontario in the early part of the last century, While I was born in Toronto, every summer was spent with my grandmother at Mazinaw Lake in sight of the dramatic granite cliffs of "Bon Echo".
Until my late teens I studied ballet and modern dance; gradually moving towards the visual arts in my early 20's. Then in 1987 I had the life-changing opportunity to work as an assistant to Joyce Weiland as she prepared for her first Art Gallery of Ontario retrospective. Having witnessed the "artist's life" first hand, I made the decision to study drawing and painting at the Ontario College of Art (OCA). At that time, OCA still had two distinct painting departments -- "Experimental Arts" where I studied with abstract painters Graham Coughtry and Gus Weissman; and the Fine Arts Department where I studied drawing Richard Robertson and painting with Tom Dean, Rae Johnson and Natalka Husar among others.
During the last year of OCA I was able to do a year of independent work in Italy while my partner, Oliver Dawson, was studying opera singing. Exposure to art in the churches and museums of Rome made a huge impression that has stayed with me ever since. I have been painting professionally following graduation from OCA in 1996. My recent exhibition history can be viewed here and more comprehensively in my CV.
In the fall of 2021, spring of 2022 and again in winter in 2025, I was honoured to be part of an artists residency program through the Pouch Cove Foundation, spending several months painting on the east coast of Newfoundland. This intensive experience painting in this rugged and dramatic landscape continues to influence my painting.
My work is shown in galleries across Canada and is in private and corporate collections in Canada, the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Until my late teens I studied ballet and modern dance; gradually moving towards the visual arts in my early 20's. Then in 1987 I had the life-changing opportunity to work as an assistant to Joyce Weiland as she prepared for her first Art Gallery of Ontario retrospective. Having witnessed the "artist's life" first hand, I made the decision to study drawing and painting at the Ontario College of Art (OCA). At that time, OCA still had two distinct painting departments -- "Experimental Arts" where I studied with abstract painters Graham Coughtry and Gus Weissman; and the Fine Arts Department where I studied drawing Richard Robertson and painting with Tom Dean, Rae Johnson and Natalka Husar among others.
During the last year of OCA I was able to do a year of independent work in Italy while my partner, Oliver Dawson, was studying opera singing. Exposure to art in the churches and museums of Rome made a huge impression that has stayed with me ever since. I have been painting professionally following graduation from OCA in 1996. My recent exhibition history can be viewed here and more comprehensively in my CV.
In the fall of 2021, spring of 2022 and again in winter in 2025, I was honoured to be part of an artists residency program through the Pouch Cove Foundation, spending several months painting on the east coast of Newfoundland. This intensive experience painting in this rugged and dramatic landscape continues to influence my painting.
My work is shown in galleries across Canada and is in private and corporate collections in Canada, the U.S., Europe and Asia.
CVCV
Galleries:
Soul Gallery, Winnipeg, MB
Westland Gallery, London
Lonsdale Gallery, Toronto (temporarily closed)
Micak Contemporary, Aurora
Soul Gallery, Winnipeg, MB
Westland Gallery, London
Lonsdale Gallery, Toronto (temporarily closed)
Micak Contemporary, Aurora