Although Scott C. Johnson’s landscape studies are rooted in plein air painting, early-on he began to add the little touches that rouse the imagination—the faint treetops that indicate a valley beyond the hill, or the tiny glint of water that tantalizes over a grassy dune. These hints at an unseen landscape beyond the one we see, were an introduction to his dream world.

Scott developed the soft washes of the Japanese tradition, as well as the refined linework of the Persian miniature. As he grew more confident with the brush, he also became more involved in meditational techniques, and the painting became more concerned with recording a process, a trance state, a finding of the happy accident, and less with a specific reality.

He is a developed sensual being, with an appreciation for music, dance and garden design. Scott’s love of nature, refreshed by frequent trips and hikes, is evident in his work, but its mood, often portrayed by impending weather, dominates the objects in the landscape. There are subtle references to change in the clouds and stronger references to death and loneliness in the leafless trees of his latest work, yet the mood is never hopeless, but lets us know that the next season, bringing the tiny leaves of Spring, is just beyond and approaching.

View Scott’s Gallery

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