Wesley JohnsonUntitled Abstract Expressionist Painting Ojai California Artist Wesley Johnson

Details

Description

A listed California painter, muralist, and teacher, Wesley Johnson was born in Ojai, California in 1934, and educated at Ventura … Read more A listed California painter, muralist, and teacher, Wesley Johnson was born in Ojai, California in 1934, and educated at Ventura College and the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was also a pupil of Howard Warshaw and Andre L'Hote. The cubist style of Warshaw, combined with the airy and light feeling of impressionism and the abstraction of expression, influenced Johnson's style of painting. His paintings often contain large, sweeping strokes, but a subtle use of color that evocative of his spontaneous, non-objective style.
Wesley Johnson is an Abstract Expressionist with strong influences from Cubism and Impressionism. His work has run the gamut from figurative murals painted on the commissary walls at Fort Ord, to large, colorful abstract oils and acrylics on canvas. Some Johnson murals are painted on the walls and ceilings of centuries-old building in Milan and Paris. Other works are in an ultramodern “grave de eglomise” process that involves removing the silver backing from mirrors and painting into the etched surface, giving a multidimensional effect that seems to surround the viewer.
He became involved with art while a student at Ventura College, where he had originally planned to study engineering. He continued his art education at the University of California at Santa Barbara, working under influential painter and theoretician Howard Warshaw.
Johnson’s long and varied career has included a stint in the U.S. Army, restoring the etching plates of noted American Western artist John Edward Borein, and many years of teaching at Ventura College. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious James D. Phelan Award for Literature and Art.Known for his abstract Expressionism works, Johnson's works generally show a proclivity towards light and landscape influence by West coast artists like Wayne Thiebaud and Richard Diebenkorn. He exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the DeYoung Memorial Museum, the Galerie de Seine, and the California State Fair. He also has been widely exhibited throughout the Western United States. He has received many awards for his art including the prestigious James D. Phelan Award for Literature and Art. See less