We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Stephen Robert Johns a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Stephen Robert, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Working professionally as an artist has all sorts of pathways to go down. I am a fine art artist, working on paper and canvas, focused on elaborating upon artistic themes of color relationships, geometry and patterns. I am an abstract painter and a reductive minimalist. Geometry has always been my painting theme, until I began traveling by air to meetings, appointments and exhibitions in 1998. It was then while flying that I discovered incredible vistas as viewed from 30,000 feet-rivers carving out gravity-driven directions through mountains and valleys. Farmlands defined by a multiple of geometric shapes, draped over hillsides like an Amish Quilt! Unfortunately, when I first discovered the aerial view subject matter, I had my drawing books in my luggage. In front of me was an airline magazine and an air sickness bag. I had a ballpoint pen. Well over 400 drawings later, I continue to draw on air sickness bags, models for paintings back in my studio. In November 2022 I was commissioned in Naples Italy by the Zaha Hadid designed Afragola Hi-Speed Train Station, curated by Cynthia Penna, to present large, oversized prints on paper and vinyl, of my drawing studies while flying, creating a visual dialogue between my organic paintings and drawings with the organic geometry of the Hadid-designed structure. This kind of relationship between the architecture and the art is what I strive to do. It allows a visual conversation between the architectural space, the art and the visitors passing through. A very meaningful project.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a LA native! Following graduation from Pacific Palisades High School in 1966, I was accepted to study at Chouinard Art Institute in LA, a Walt Disney run school, in 1967. Two years later, I passed Sophomore Screening and began to find my way as a young student artist. However, in 1970, Chouinard closed its doors in LA and reopened the school as California Institute of the the Arts in Valencia CA. My junior & senior year were devoted to studio time, where I developed my painting techniques and style of painting, utilizing basic color and geometric hard-edge compositions on large 6×6′ canvases. And after graduation in 1972, I entered my new series of paintings in the Westwood Outdoor Art Show, located near UCLA. I won! Not only did I win, I was hooked up with local architects and artist representatives, which led to some interesting projects, including working with Tamara Thomas of Fine Arts Services of Los Angeles, who commissioned (150) of my paintings for the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana; and six paintings at the Security Pacific Bank collection, El Segundo CA. As an artist, I wanted to create a style of painting on canvas that everyone could relate to-the geometry, perspectives, color progressions, and size. Designers and architects liked my work and soon I was busy working on painting commissions related to designated interiors. I feel that the success of my painting acquizitions were based on educating the viewer about geometry and color, and to present my work as large, hand painted canvases. Of course trends in artwork come and go and return again. I felt the need to branch out with my painting style. In 1998 I began traveling a lot-visiting family abroad and for international exhibitions. I also received a Fellowship from LA Artcore in Los Angeles to create my art in Costa Rica at the Julia and David White Artists’ Colony. It was during these flights that I discovered the aerial views while flying over mountains, volcanos, rivers and farmlands. I immediately began drawing the views on white and off white air sickness bags-my sketch books were in luggage! Over the past 25 years and over (400) drawings on air sickness bags later, I have amassed and sold numerous drawings and paintings, inspired and based on my aerial view drawings. I use a ball point pen, either blue or black, and make a fast simple line drawing. Once back in the studio I begin my painting, using the drawing a model. This hard edge art was contrastingly different to my sterile geometric paintings, presenting landscapes viewed from 30,000′, as hard edge paintings. One of the projects I recently completed, the Afragola Hi-Speed Train Station, located in Naples Italy, is an installation of my drawings and paintings I am most proud of. Working with Italian/US curator, Cynthia Penna, I was able to present a select group of my aerial view drawings as 3-6′ tall reproductions. The architectural firm of Zaha Hadid designed the train station, and because of my organic drawings, I selected work that created the best dialogue between Hadid’s train station and my art.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I must add that painting sales are not the end all, but staying active as an artist is. After all, the 1970’s helped launch my name and my art. Working with art reps became my focus, but something wasn’t quite right. One example during the mid 1980’s- I was having a tough time coming up with painting themes, and discouraged by being ignored by local galleries. I heard about Barnsdall Park needing art instructors, so I interviewed for the Barnsdall Park teaching job and got it. My class was coordinated and supervised by Dr Mary Martz, and my class was made up of physically and mentally challenged children and adults. Mary herself was a victim of Polio at the age of eleven, never able to walk again, always on her motorized wheelchair. I taught my class the same way that I was taught about art at Chouinard and Cal Arts, and created lesson plans for the students based on my style of art. Soon, LACMA requested Mary bring her teachers (03) to teach various age groups, with a number of art projects for children born with physical and mental disabilities as well as children born from a drug addict mother; to Viet Nam vets suffering from the war. My art programs did very well, because I saw how it affected the students. Some students were young gang members, others disabled, but I saw satisfaction in the eyes of all of my students and their teachers. We studied color and shape, walking Barnsdall Park for ideas, returning to our classroom to create compositions based on our findings.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Educating followers, collectors and viewers of my art. That has been my mission from the beginning. I am fortunate to be part of art collections in Japan, Italy, Costa Rica and the United States. The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation in Los Angeles recently purchased three of my paintings for their collection. As an artist, I have always had the natural ability to draw. I excelled in life drawing art school classes. Figure drawing was my favorite. But I was weak in understanding color and math. Art school challenged me, and forced me to learn about color, and about geometry. So, with my art, I wish to educate the viewer. Integrating geometric shapes with color contrasts and color progressions is what my painting is all about. With my Geometric Series, simple compositions are static, full of movement and color contrasts, all within the framework of a geometrical shape(s). With my Organic Geometric Series, the painting actually begins with a drawing of subject matter, possibly an aerial view drawing while flying. Looking out of the window of an airliner at 30,000′, you get an incredible overview of the world, with horizons and perspectives accented by rivers and roads, stretching in different directions for hundreds of miles. Drawings need to be done fast, since your Jet is passing over so fast. Farmlands are a great geometric subject matter, especially when the farm wraps around a Central American mountainous range. Here my paintings become three dimensional. Capturing drawings of farmlands over the Midwest presents a flatter and more 2-D composition. And, details of my drawings are sacrificed in place of a minimal deconstructed view from the plane window. Geometry still plays an important part of my organic geometric paintings, integrated into my subject matter. Back in the studio, I rely on my memory to produce a color palette related to the scene I drew in the air.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.srjart.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/stephen.r.johns.1?utm_medium=copy_link
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StephenRobertJohnsArt/
• Linkedin: https://lnkd.in/gVaHqEpi
• Youtube: https://YouTube.be/V9JgSOtEsZE