School of Art and Design Alumni Exhibition 2021

Wayne Johnson
Graduated 1976

After receiving a Masters Of Fine Arts degree I applied for college teaching positions. While waiting for an offer of full time employment, I taught part time at a Community College and had a visiting artist position at The University Of Maine. Concerned that I was not making enough money to support my family and a full time teaching was not materializing, I took a position in management at a local ship repair facility. Ultimately, I worked in that field for over thirty years. The demands on my time from the job took me away from painting. I find inspiration from a wide variety of things, from the beauty of a flower to the beauty of a hole in the street.
When a major corporation purchased the business I was working for in 2017, I became financially secure enough to retire. Once again have the time I need to devote to painting. I started to paint with fervor and have been producing an amazing volume of work since.

North Carolina art pottery, women and fruit are prominent in my paintings

My work is typically objective abstraction, based on subject matter, fruit, pottery, women etc. I also enjoy creating more spontaneous smaller scale works in mixed media on paper. I began working on the small mixed media works in 2018. These energetic expressive works from my perspective are based on the female figure but are likely seen by others as completely non-objective. They are quickly executed using expressive marks, gestures and symbols.

In 2020 I had surgery and the recovery made it difficult for me to paint, so I turned once more to drawing. The mixed media drawings I created in 2020 usually depict a bizarre juxtaposition of unrelated objects and I often make recognizable images from abstract blotches and gestural marks.
Since reinvigorating my artistic pursuits my work has been accepted in local and national juried exhibitions and I have participated in one person and group art shows.

North Carolina Pot With Apples, Acrylic On Canvas, 30″ x 40″ x 1.5″, 2018