About the Artist

Cheryl C Johnson

My first memories of finding total joy in art came from our little one-room classroom in Cambodia where my mother taught my brother and me most of our grade school. Mom introduced us to all kinds of art, including potato printing, finger painting and drawing/painting. I LOVED it all!

We were blessed to live in the lush tropics of Cambodia, complete with brilliantly-colored birds, flowers, trees, and villages full of interesting folks living a whole different way from us. Just for fun, I’m including a couple of my early “works” done during that time.

I made a point of taking art classes through high school and college, where I studied Art Education from some incredible professors in a variety of media. But watercolors settled into my heart where they still live today.

You might think I would have ended up with a career in teaching. Life circumstances took me in a whole different direction, giving me a very fulfilling career as a financial advisor. But my soul still craved art, so on Sundays, I would slip out to the studio my husband built, where I would lose myself in the process of painting people and scenes that moved and captured me in real life.

Since then I have found it very important to continue to learn new approaches and techniques. One of my very favorite instructors is Mary Whyte, an amazing portrait artist who puts her whole heart into the people and scenes she so beautifully portrays. Another teacher I truly value is David Taylor, a world-renowned Australian artist who is a master at depicting vibrant scenes that reach beyond what you see in real life. Most recently I took a valuable workshop from Herman Pekel, another well-known Australian artist who has helped me see that painting every detail is just not as important as getting the point across, capturing the moment of inspiration.