Richard A. Johnson

One day while driving along the North Carolina coast, I had to stop as this sail boat was going by a bridge. I decided to drive down along the Intercoastal Waterway to a spot where I could photograph the boat as it came by. I learned to sail while in art school and have always liked doing paintings of sailboats.

This painting was inspired by watching the birds that come to the bird feeders in my backyard. I keep the feeders full of sunflower seeds, which the birds and squirrels love. I usually see Cardinals, House Finches, Chickadees, Blue Jays, and once in a while Wood Peckers. We find all kinds of bird feathers in our yard including red wing hawks and owls. The Chickadee and Carolina wren were carved out of the wood the bricks framing the canvas were carved from. The vines were made of wire with canvas leaves attached. Ive been experimenting with bringing the image beyond the edge of the canvas. On this painting the broken bricks, carved birds, and vines do just that. 

Most of my windows are done as if the viewer were outside looking in at a still life, with a reflection of what's outside. The reflection covers the upper section of the windows, and sometimes covers parts of the still life. This painting is different because I've painted the window panes as if they were broken to go with the broken brick around the window frame, I wanted the painting to look like a section of brick wall that has been torn out with a window in it. Ive created this painting by attaching smaller canvases to the sides of a larger one, and then framing in wood, more wood was then added. The wood was then carved and painted to make it look like old brick. I like the abstract shape of the painting. In the window is a collection of bird eggs, a cobalt blue bottle with feathers in it, and a strange looking antique wooden toy duck. There is a couple of Carolina wrens that have come in through the broken window. They are fussing at the strange looking duck as if accusing it of steeling the eggs. All of my windows have a story behind them... This one would start with "Once upon a time there was a bird of a different feather..." The rest of the story I leave up to the imagination of the viewer. This was the first painting that was finished after my cancer treatments and was shown in the 2014 ArtFields.

When photographing egrets I look for unusual poses. I like it when the birds have their wings extended. This one was cleaning itself, in the painting I put the two Turtles on the shore watching the bird.

With a dockside view this window has a collection of seashells, a crab, and carved wooden fish. There is also a handful of goldfish crackers. On the window ledge there are pieces of pine straw and a bird feather, people have tried to brush off pine straw painted on the window ledges of windows I've painted.

My trompe-loeil windows are all done as if you were outside looking in. There is a still life inside with a reflection of what's outside. This one has a sail boat model and seashells that came from the beach in the reflection. The old bottle may have been found in the sand dunes. In my studio I have all kinds of old bottles and sea shells.

The squirrel in this painting is jumping over the moon reflected in the window. My cat was very excited when she saw the squirrel on the top of the painting. It's partly carved out of wood and partly painted on the canvas. It has paintbrush bristles for it's whiskers on it's left side. This painting is one of several I've done that try to extend the image beyond the edge of the canvas.

This Niche was done as if looking out from a courtyard toward the marsh. On the sill there is a garden sculpture of a shore bird. There is a Carolina wren looking up at it, and a blue and white porcelain piece with a bird on it that is also looking up at the sculpture. The flowers and the porcelain piece came from my house. This is one of my newest paintings finished in July of this year. I thought about calling it "Someone to look up to."

In this painting the sun is just coming up and this Great Egret is flying in for the mornings hunt. These birds are common in the marshes of the southeast. I’ve been painting egrets for years. I started using them as decoration for my landscapes, but in recent years I’ve been painting them on a larger scale. This one was done toward the end of 2016 and is one of my favorite paintings.

“Near Georgetown” was completed on February 23rd 2018. I’ve always loved sailboats! The two boats in this painting were in Georgetown near where my brother Don had his boat, I took photos of them from his boat. I Liked the way the light was hitting the trees in the background. The Color in the sky has 4 shades of blue over a base of raw Sienna, I tried to keep it soft.

I was on my way to Kiawah Island which is South of Charleston, SC to go to an art show. I went over a bridge and saw a road going to a boat landing. I turned on the road to take some photos and saw this row of trees with a beautiful marsh landscape behind it. This is the painting that was a result of that trip. It's been very popular at shows and almost was sold to a gentleman who wanted it for a 150' yacht. It turned out to be not large enough for the space he wanted it for so I still have it. It's one of my favorite landscapes.

Another beautiful day off Charleston, SC. It seems like whenever the weather is good there are sailboats in the water off Charleston. I actually photographed this boat off Georgetown and put it into the water off Charleston. I sometimes use items from one area and use them somewhere else, I like to use my imagination.

I have gone to Huntington State Park to photograph birds for many years. On one trip I saw these two egrets. The one in the back was cleaning himself, but it was like he was being camera shy because every time I brought my cameras up to take a photo he would hide behind his wing.

Charleston is one of my favorite places. If I ever live there I would want a sail boat. In this painting you can see St. Phillips church in the background. I have done several paintings with St Phillips in them. I did the Piccolo Spoleto Art Festival for 33 years and the show lasted 14 days. Each morning I would walk looking for things to paint. I walked around church street many times and did paintings of that area.

I've always liked Van Gogh's sunflower paintings, my next door neighbors planted sunflowers in their garden and I had just seen something about Van Gogh's work. When the Sunflowers had grown, I photographed them and did several sunflower paintings. Mine are not anything like Van Gogh's but I enjoyed doing them anyway.

I've seen black birds get upset when larger birds like a Great Egret comes into their territory. In this painting I've got an egret that's being harassed by a group of red winged black birds. It almost looks like he is about to swat one with his wing.

You see lots of wading birds among the cypress trees of the southeast coastal area. In this painting I have Great Egrets, White Ibis, and Great Blue Heron. One Egret is flying by looking for a less crowded landing pad. This takes place in early fall because of the warm colors in the foliage of the cypress trees. This painting was finished in February of this year.

I've done lots of paintings of shore birds. I went to Brookgreen Gardens to see a wildlife show they had on exhibit and walked through the zoo section in the park. One area had a place with shore birds, snowy Egrets and night herons. I had never painted a Black Crowned Night Heron before and they let me get very close to them when I was photographing them. This was the first painting I've done of them and will be doing more.

This painting was finished around the end of March this year. I did a painting for a client in Buckhead near Atlanta, GA. There were two small lakes in the front of his property. It's been 10 or 11 years since I did the painting for him. I had photographed the lakes because I liked the reflections of the trees on the water. The deer in this painting was one of five that walked through my backyard. I thought it would be a nice addition to this Quiet Place.

In this painting a Carolina wren has landed on top of a metal trellis with an iron bird on top. Growing on the trellis is a clematis vine my wife had planted. We have this trellis in our backyard and have seen Carolina wrens land on top of the metal bird.