368 -. Wednesday, January 26, 1994 — North Shore News

Works touch upon all
Styles Johnston's used

From page 23

with the coffee-house crowd and
attended life-drawing sessions at
a time when studios peppered
the area (one of which was occu-
pied by songwriter/artist Joni
Mitchell).

“In the evenings we would ail
get together and listen to the
Bran lenberg Concerto and
draw,” she says. “It was wonder-
ful. It was the real thing.”

From that era came Johston’s
wealth of figurative work, mono-
chrome oils on canvas, the col-
ors and lighting of which
recalled her memories of
Zimbabwe while the extensive
“use of seaside settings revealed
her growing fascination with
West Coast topography.

The latter interest segued nat-
- urally- into her next phase of
“work, large landscapes,

» seascapes and mountainscapes,
often executed in the style of
--Photo.Realism and popular with
corporate collectors such as the
Pan Pacific Corportion, Kaiser -
© Resources and ICBC... * ’

The landscapes eventually
.. began‘displaying elements of
’ Impressi ionissn and Johnston :
‘switched her focus to flowers’
‘and gardens, again attracting the
_,attention of collectors. :

“In the beginning, there:
wasn’t a high endfor the work,”-
she says. “Then the ‘80s hap-"

» pened and there was a lot of ».
“flashy. money out there t that
changed things.” :

Wishing to recapture what she
calls the “real hunger” that first :

ispired her, Johnston undertook. .
a month-long retreat-in the.
Okanagan’ during which she...
would ace a a blank piece of

paper each morning and with

“an empty mind and no con-
cepts, ideas or references to the
outside world.”

Her goal was to produce a
work a day, “totally removed
from intellect and working purely
on creative energy. It was almost
tike channeling.

“It came about only gradually,
but when it finally hit, it was so
exciting — I’ve never ‘had such
an artistic charge. It’s one thing
to read about experiences like”
that but to actually be involved
in the ‘process is quite another
thing.

The result is a collection of '
abstracts utilizing energetic col-
ors.

The reawakening she experi-
enced led directly to Through
Ancient Eyes and, indeed, those
works touch upon all of the
styles Johnston has worked with
in the past. As for a follow-up,
she plans a return to her large

_ landscapes, a show that should .

be ready for her September
exhibit at the John D. Ramsay

Contemporary Art Gallery.

“There is a pressure in trying
to prepare for gallery shows,” she
says, “but you've got to pay ‘the
cr

As for her decision to take a
step backwards rather than fol-
fowing the muse that fed to her
latest personal-and professional

“reinvention, she simply says, “it's
like going back to visit old loves.

“Artistically, the drive is’.

always there not to just make
_ pictures but to experience the

dimensions of your own exis-.
tence:

“I suppose that’ s why artists °
are so lucky.—- we're ee to mir-

. ror ourselves, :

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