Mitchell Johnson

"Whether plein air or in the studio, Mitchell Johnson revels in the act of painting. His air, sun-splashed landscapes of Italy, northern California and New Mexico vibrates with an energy culled from years of painting on site. The seemingly casual nature of his compositions are the results of a dedicated studio practice. Schooled in the rigors of New York abstraction, Johnson does not abandon representation but rather constructs a context for it: color becomes form, line becomes definition, and paint becomes space. With these tools Mitchell Johnson presents us with his unique vision of the world. Throughout the ten years of our association, it is the joy and playfulness of his paintings that I find most attractive. Johnson will let the implied, blurry movement or the ghost of a figure that has been edited out remain as a clue or alternative. Tractors and airplanes, the patterns on beach umbrellas, or the line of a series of trees, are all the elements which in combination give each Johnson painting unique perspective."--Jacket.