Bio
Cheryl Johnson is a painter who explores the connection between realism and abstraction, balancing bold gestural art with sensitive expression. Resonating with Abstract Expressionists her non-objective and figurative early works transitioned into abstract representational themes. Her work is inspired by world travels as well as the landscape and cultures of her homes in North Carolina, Hawaii and her Idaho birthplace as well as her Finnish heritage. Cheryl’s transcendent eye propels her to explore the emotions of place.
As a strong environmental awareness advocate, her canvases are often inspired by nature and resonate with a deftly modulated palette of translucent and opaque colors. Light hues bleed into darks with a sense of expressive, fluid movement and reflect the harmony and tenacity of the natural world. Cheryl’s studios are in Charlotte, NC, and Hanalei, Kauai, HI.
In the fall of 2019 Cheryl desired a shift in her life and recently returned from a summer in Kauai to her familiar setting of her NC studio. In this innovation she wants to reaffirm her individuality and release boundaries and explore or transform her work to be freer. For the past decade her work included brighter jewel tones. In the autumn of 2019 inspired by her daily inspiration and photography of a solitary mountain out her window in Kauai covered by various veils of clouds she started a new series of both Paintings and Photography called: “Quiet Reflections.” This shift in her art and photography work, inspired by the beauty of space around us, prayer, meditation and living our dreams.
This series allowed her to reexamine her own emotions and search for a new approach to her daily life of meditation and creation. She consciously explored a refined composition, embracing softer warm colors, a new utilization of space and a personal time of self awakening. Johnson will be continuing to explore these concepts.
