Photography and
Fine Arts
Welcome to Suzy Johnson's art portfolio! Suzy is a Minnesota artist who captures the beauty of the state's landscapes, animals, and people through her art. She works through a variety mediums, including photography, wax, oils, and watercolor; in her work hopes these pieces will create a personal response that can evoke emotion, promote healing, or simply please you or enhance your environment. If you have any questions or would like to schedule a commission, please don't hesitate to contact her.
Bio
Suzy Johnson is a talented encaustic and multi-media artist based in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her work explores a variety of subjects, with a particular focus on nature and animals. Suzy's artistic style is fluid and expressive, defined by rich layers, captivating textures, and vibrant tones that create an emotional experience for the viewer. She embraces a loose approach that combines Abstract, Impressionism, and sometimes starkness in her Black and White Photography while remaining fluid in her paintings. Each piece unfolds organically as the subject guides the image to sometimes unexpected places. Suzy's work is inspired by a narrative aspect and serves as an advocacy for the environment and the animals humanity has lived and survived with.
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From the Artist: All of my life I have relied on the visual to understand. So I have always created through drawing or painting from my school experience to my college years; there I discovered the wonders of Photography. This was the start of a career working with professionals in fashion, still-life, and nature as I imagined and produced my own vision of the world around me. Later as I expanded my work to add oil and wax methods, I was amazed at the smoothness combining oils with wax could produce. This ancient form of painting evokes glasslike calm, yet Encaustic painting also has the ablility to build texture - opening and revealing hidden dimensions below the surface. Encaustic painting challenges one to scrape and paint until colors reveal an often surprising outcome. The statement of the pieces come as the image develops with the painting process. It is much like sculpting an image with paint and thought. The process includes a .willingness to be transformed through discovery
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For me painting, whether Encaustic, Traditional Oil, Watercolor, or Mixed Media, subjects from nature contain both form and texture; allowing me to explore the delicacy of a smooth surface, create strong surfaces and explore the process of scraping, blending, and building to reveal colors as the piece evolves. This is exciting to me, motivating me, never giving up on a piece but always moving forward. This approach also works well in life
Nature, water, animals, and spirituality are represented in my work as abstract pieces that may speak to me in one way and to the viewer differently, but evoke memory, emotion, and response- to create that unique connection between an individual and a piece of art. Subjects of water and light are often central to my pieces; social, beautiful, and mysterious elements in water, nature, and spirit are the foundation of life. Water frequents my paintings as strength- enough to erode rock yet gentle and soothing, it has mystery, fluidity, strength, and a myriad of colors that support existence. Perfect for exploring the heart and meaning of life
If I create from the heart almost everything works; if from the head almost nothing.
Marc Chagall
Contact
I'm always looking for new and exciting opportunities. Let's connect.
651.278.4148