Jane Johnson

Jane Johnson's paintings currently reflect a Mediterannean sense of age, color and light. Edges and shapes are her interest, rendered in subtle color often in the form of cypress trees. Her work is in private and corporate collections throughout the U.S. and currently appears in the movie," Addicted to Love" She is represeented by Rooms & Gardens on Lafayette Street in New York City, by Maggie Nolan in Wainscott, NY and by Ann Levine in Washington, D.C.

"C'est grâce aux astres nonpareils,
Qui tout au fond du ciel flamboient
Que mes yeux consumés ne voient
Que des souvenirs de soleils"

- Baudelaire

"It is thanks to the unequaled stars,
which blaze within the deepest sky,
that my burned-out eyes can see
only the suns of memory"

When Jane Johnson began painting images of cypress trees in 1984, she considered herself primarily a colorist. As her work progressed, the artist began to appreciate the unfamiliar cypress tree for its relationship to the other oval shapes: birds, boats and fish, which she included in her early work. Like these other subjects, Johnson saw the cypress as an object unto itself that stood out against the surrounding environment. From nature, Johnson finds an intoxication of vision grounded in the steadfast imagery of the tree.
Mixing acrylic and oil paint with various mediums, she paints on French handmade paper or birch veneer plywood. Johnson builds with layers of paint and transparent glazes, the poetic, often distant, sometimes mysterious images shaped by the alchemy of experience and memory. Jane Johnson's work has been exhibited at various Washington, DC galleries as well as in NewYork, Virginia, Colorado and California. She participated in the traveling exhibit in conjunction with the 1985 United Nations World Conference on Women in Nairobi, now in the permanent collection at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Her work has been exhibited in the United States Embassy, Republic of Djibouti as part of the United States Department of State Art in Embassies program, which owns several of her paintings.
In addition to "The Washington Post", Johnson's work has appeared in the pages of "New York Magazine" and Martha Stewart's "Living" among other national publications.

Jane Johnson
PO Box 3048, Sag Harbor, NY 11963, phone/fax: 516-725-0611,
e-mail: jajo-art@hamptons.com