My name is Russell Johnson.  I’ve been creating art since I was a child.  I painted my first work at age twelve.  I studied art and architecture for five years at the University of Minnesota.  Following those years of study, I apprenticed and become a journeyman woodcrafter for residence and commercial interiors.

I painted in a variety of styles during my educational days, before finding my first passion which was gometric abstractions.  My first series was done in technical pen and ink.  Following that, I opened a studio/gallery, Dorje Gallery, and painted a series of 65 works, 24 x 24-inch using airbrush with gauche on primed/textured board, and a second series of eight, 48 x 48 inches airbrushed with acrylic on canvas. 

I moved on to pursue an architectural career in Los Angeles for residential and commercial projects.  In my spare time, I created digital art using some of my architectural tools, Autodesk 3d Studio, and Corel Paint Shop Pro. 

Upon my retirement from architecture, I discoved the Tarn and began spending my summers in a hilltop village, Cordes sur Ciel, in the south of France and began painting with acrylic on linen canvas in a more realistic, impressionist style.  I found inspiration in the classical impressionists, who found beauty in nature and the real world.  There is a real art and skill in creating this style of art and I devoted myself to it.  Quieting myself and observing the world, I would come to a meditative moment while working and enjoy peace that comes from communing with nature.  The world has moved on since the original impressionists, and I paint today’s world.  Instead of Monet’s hand piled hay, I painted round bales of hay produced by machines.  I paint cars occasionally, but decayed cars.  I enjoy capturing the time scale of decay and dissolution. 

Instead of painting pleine aire in the hot sun with oils, I paint from photographs that I select from the best that I take.  They enable me to find images that are interesting and timeless like those of the classical impressionists.  My geographic center is Cordes sur Ciel, but the paintings range various distances away as I travel and photograph the astoundingly beautiful landscape of France.  I exhibited one summer at the Galerie Impressionniste on the Grand Rue in Cordes.

I hope that impressionism can continue into the future – as it has never really died.  It is a way of painting that is just as relevant today as it was decades ago.  I’ve completed over 230 works in my series of French paintings. They range through many different subjects, mostly landscape and architecture, some of which the classical impressionists painted, such as the water lilies.  My water lilies are quite different from those of Monet, as I usually explore greater realism.    Salvador Dalí once said that artists should learn to paint realism before exploring other genres and I took that to heart in some of my earlier airbrush works on canvas. 

My works are for sale except for early works.  I am open to group sales for institutions, and I am open to gallery representation. 

My French series works are chronologically displayed on my blog: https://russell-johnson-art.blogspot.com/

Reproductions, greeting cards, etc. are available for the French series on: 7-russell-johnson.pixels.com