Landscapes and People: Mitchell Johnson's paintings

Call me old-fashioned but I've forever had a heart and an eye for painting. I've always enjoyed the sight and the presence of a picture on the wall, and how much the colors of a painting can transform the room it is in. That's true also for fairly traditional paintings of landscapes and people. Realism, when it is well done can be such an incredible mirror of our lives that it makes us think or it evokes all sorts of emotions.



For that reason it is always nice to visit a show of paintings not exactly knowing where they will take you this time even if you have seen some work of the same artist before. That's why I am looking forward to the Open House show of Mitchell Johnson in Palo Alto's Cubberly Center, 4000 Middlefield Road, Space E5, on Saturday December 4, 2004, from 1:30 to 4:30pm.

Mitchell is definitely a realist painter, so much so that you can tell from his paintings where the artist has been recently, Napa wine country, farming and beaches around Gillroy and Pescadero in the Bay Area, and again and again, vistas of Tuscany, Tuscan towns, houses and workers. This is where the artists spends part of the year. You can feel it deep down inside, Mitchell knows and loves his topics and this love transpires when you look at his paintings. Besides, he is a good craftsman as an artist, forms and colors appear almost effortless but quite precisely on his canvases.

Further information is available at www.MitchellJohnson.com or call (650) 561-0070. Also of note is the new monograph "Mitchell Johnson" by Peter Campion available now at Kepler's Books, A Clean Well Lighted Place for Books, and Amazon.com