To and From the World: a dialog with space(s)

Century College Niche Gallery, April 11-June 16, 2022

Painting for me has mostly been a solitary practice. Although I see myself primarily as a studio painter, I have been a mural painter and even ‘performed’ painting during music and art events. After those brief outward facing moments, I always returned to the protected space of my studio. I have used my painting practice to explore nearly anything that interests me with some reoccurring themes. The themes of recreating the feeling of space, the sweep of time in an image, the sensation of looking into and out from spaces, and the awareness of place all thread their way through my work.

In 2022 and 2023, I felt the need to move beyond my studio – out into the landscape to make work. I have done work in the past about maps, place, and geography, but I really felt like moving my studio out into the landscape. At first, I tried some small quick trips that in retrospect, helped me to really feel effective and comfortable painting in public. Soon, I crafted some tools to help move my studio out into the landscape. I developed a bicycle-mounted easel, a large portable studio, a pocket sketch kit, and watercolor setup. These tools accompanied me as I extended my trips.

My work changed too as I moved further and further away from my studio. At first, feeling the weight of tradition, I painted representationally – trying to capture the likeness of the landscape. I learned some plein aire techniques and participated in some painting festivals. After each trip when I returned to the studio, I had some new skills, a renewed sense of wonder, and some experimenting to do.

I began to feel that a single image didn’t really communicate all that I was experiencing in those spaces. I sought to explore other aspects of the landscape – the smells, how I felt, what I was thinking about, etc. when I was looking. The idea of “landscape” permeated my thinking. I started to realize that how I gazed into and through the landscape very much reminded me of a cinematic type of scan – a broad visual casting outward. That sweep of space in cinema, as in my experience, also guides the viewer inward to a parallel emotional landscape. When we look, we feel.

The experience of a landscape or place is plural. It is both physical and non-physical. Environment – where we are or where we perceive we are, has a profound effect on us. Taking time while painting as I did – sitting, looking, observing these places, can be a powerful exercise to help one to identify where they really are. The painter inevitably creates a painting in reaction to something. “Where” for me became the something.

In the end, the deliberate shove or push that I gave myself created some exciting creative avenues of exploration, and a deeper awareness of how I experience places and environments. I ventured out and experienced new spaces, then returned refreshed with new ideas. An inspirational breath to and from the world.

Johnston 2.21.23

Been painting air (Plein Air that is...)

 So, worked up some courage and really embraced the idea of painting outside. My local art center (The White Bear Center for the Arts) had a great Plein Aire Competition and I registered. For several days, I painted at a local park and really enjoyed the process. I put together a set-up with my bike:

Once I spent a day, then I made some adjustments! I am not totally new to Plein Air, however this year, I quickly learned to pack lightly when biking. The first trip out, I used small tubes of paint in oil and acrylic. During the following trips, I found myself taking fewer and fewer things. I ended up using oils exclusively, on wood panels. Here are some pics of the adventure! 

Can You Hear It? @ 45.0727222, -93.1002028

12 x 12 Oil on Birch Panel

Reaching @ 45.0727222, -93.1002028

12 x 12 Oil and Acrylic on Birch Panel

The whole experience was exciting, and it inspired me to make some paintings at Big Sandy Lake in McGregor, MN. I painted for a couple days on small (4 5/8 x 8 1/4 inch panels) in oil. Here are the results:

Southeast @ 46.7597861,-93.2802194

Northeast @  @ 46.7597861,-93.2802194

These small paintings are oil on board and are the smallest I have made (4 5/8 x 8 1/4"). I am discovering that landscape painting and (painting in the landscape) is providing me a great escape from the basement studio and the work that I do there. The next trip for me is to the great Lake Superior (Port Wing, WI) to paint the first week of August in the Port Wing Plein Air Festival here's the link. I am preparing, and tinkering with more easel set-ups for that yearly event! More updates in the future! I guess my advice to you is for goodness sake, get out of your studio and make art! 

New Introductions

 Okay, I did it! I made an introductory video - such an awkward thing to do, but I've heard it is nice to have. After nearly 6 tries, I captured one that I liked. So, there we go! I am finding that doing a video diary of sorts from the studio is kind of therapeutic. I am often over whelmed buy the amount of material that I am moving through in the studio in any given week, month, or season. I am starting to enjoy this as part of a routine to help me to organize and keep track of these investigations or aesthetic experiments. I have often thought that it would be great to open up the studio, to make stuff and show the process. The successes, surprises, as well as the challenges and failures. I am working alone, and am hoping that this connects with someone! So, onward! I am discovering that after the initial set up, tech failures, learning curve, and creating a digital studio amongst the clutter and creative refuse of the studio, that I think this should be able to be incorporated into my daily process, and as I continue, it is becoming more normal. The introduction in for me I suppose - this new creative space, tech included, is welcoming me to create and share. So I am, so am I. Poetics aside, this is pretty fun! Here is my first introduction video: 

Paintstew is hopping!

This week, I decided to create videos for all the works that I have in-process. It is a nice process, as I have been trying out some new hardware - the Stream Deck. After a quick set up, and some trials, I was able to create some new content for my YouTube channel.

To date, 8-9 series of works since last fall - all in various states of resolution and discovery. The process of introducing them to an audience was helpful and enlightening. I think in the end, the process of tracking these sets in this way will help me to focus and hone my process. So far, folks have been pretty receptive. I am hoping to up my production game as I make more of these. Already, I created custom thumbnails for each with my watermark! 21st Century studio here I come! Here is a recent addition:

Sketchbook inspiration from an inattentive dad

 The studio is popping this week as I found some old sketches from about 3 years ago - pre-pandemic. I found myself taking my awesome teenage children to Taekwondo 3s a week. Well, I was consistently the parent with his head in his sketchbook. The 9 x 12 sketches were compositions of ink-drawn shapes, symbols, letterforms, and abstract bubble-like forms. I think I remember at the time that I was attempting to make these drawings as I make paintings - the layering of elements. I made many of these using Rocket book: find it here as it was very convenient, and I was experimenting with cataloging sketches in my google drive. I ended up with 20-30 rectangular, vertical compositions. That was several years ago...

As it happens often in the studio, I stumble across something from the past that triggers a blast of inspiration. This is what happened, and I began transferring these small drawings on to 18 x 24, 140lb cold press watercolor paper. I always wondered what they would look like large. I had tried in the past to simply print them out large (13 x 19) but something was missing. I had the realization that maybe I should hand-reproduce them using the original images, transparencies, an overhead projector, and my favorite Molotow Blackliner pen. So, here's the first video explaining it all:

Wandering Back and Forth Through Portals

 Today, I began a approach to a series that I have begun to call "Portals". The idea has been tumbling around in my mind since my MFA Thesis work in 1999-2000 so a VERY long time. I think it is just an observation of a theme that I notice reoccurring in my work. The many works these past 20 years have all sort of orbited around a common conceptual thread. This is that I think of my paintings as passages to a viewer, through the time in my studio, to any moment when the audience notices the work. The works might be conduits of ideas, feelings, or ? that in a way transcends time/space - like small messages to future viewers, in other places. As fantasy as this sounds, I am fascinated by how my paintings function - maybe like aesthetic machines or something?

In 2020 and 2021, I began some works on paper. Those works were an exploration in present-ness and were my attempt to give-in to the process of painting that was impulsive, reactionary, and improvisational. What happened was my acceptance of the wisdom that says when you paint, you act, you react, you manifest, you work. Later, you think. I allowed my work to evolve, devolve (and sometimes destruct), as I worked daily on each piece. The series in that time were always built from multiples, 3, 4, 5, 7 works in any single exploration. In the end each piece resolved into it's own presence, that then informed me to it's larger meaning and purpose - still the concept 'portals' resonated. 

The winter of 2021 brought for me a time of reflection as do the Minnesota winter months in my studio practice. I resolved many of the works on paper and the idea/word/concept of 'portal' kept returning. So, I decided to continued the exploration using poured resin (that I was familiar with from my work in 1999-2006) to further isolate significant moments/layers in my painting process. The works in the winter/spring of 2021/2022 were all squares, 16 x 16, 12 x 12, etc. I did a series of 3 - 16 x 16, another group of 3 - 16 x 16, and a series of 4 - 12 x 12. Each of these is an exploration in space, time, and moments - yet also 'portals'.

Fast-forward to Spring 2022. I decide to embrace the idea of portals, and begin an exploration using 20" diameter x 5/8" birch plywood rounds. I am beginning the process using 10 panels, and have decided to video each step in the process. We'll see what happens! First step: getting the panels ready to paint!

Peering outward, seeing inward

This week, I am in northern WI spending some time in a cabin painting. While here for a week, I am taking much-needed time to look, to reflect, and to see. This morning as I was out for my walk, I became aware that my work over the years has always been about this moment that I was experiencing. Walking down a gravel road, looking down, hearing the birds, looking right and left - watching the forest sIowly pass me by -  one stride at a time. I was looking out - peering through the underbrush into the forest. I remember as a child, my father asking me to look into the woods as we were driving. "Look for deer' he would say, and my brother Curtis and I would look out into the forests and pasture land  of northern Minnesota or Wisconsin. We would log miles and hours looking out into the passing landscape. My father was always the best at this, spotting even the smallest movement or patch of grey-brown in the distance, the ditch, or amongst the trees. My brother and I would marvel when our father would even spot the small reflections of eyes in the ditches at night. The landscape would pass us by, and our  minds would wander - eventually to slumber in the back seat of our  Chevy Impala station wagon.

I am always looking. I enjoy peering through the forest of trees, or out toward the  passing pasturelands as I drive. I find a significant amount of happiness, and solitude when I look outward into the distance. This simple act has had a profound impact on me. I have grown to understand this simple act of looking out - has fueled most of  my artistic investigations. My paintings are for me places where I can layer up patterns and structures to create avenues and passages into depth. The gaps, negative spaces, and overlapping patterns create a mysterious environment to explore, to wander into.

My wandering into the distance- through the landscape of my native Minnesota, has helped me to realize that as I am looking outward, my mind often portages inward. The act of looking outward, is mirrored - and I have grown to rely on these self reflective moments. I seek them out, and have worked to reproduce them in my paintings over the years. These new works are mandalas about this inward/outward experience. I hope they are assemblages where someone may be compelled to look, to question, and to experience an act of visual passage.