Lee Johnson: Figurative Paintings & Portraiture

Lee Johnson
Figurative Paintings
&
Portraiture

Self-portrait
2001
16x24
oil on paper
Portraits Figures

           There are many ways of conceiving painting where the critical criteria posited lie beyond its history and its uneasy relationship with its own telos, i.e., the idea that its origin, and therefore its end, are both shaped by purpose rather than possibility.
           Ultimately, the process of representation is a recovery, a response to a set of visual stimuli, and an attempt to (re)create an optical impression (ie. sight). This said, the fulfillment of this mimetic function of painting requires more than the successful (re)creation of a visual effect. The rendering of an optical effect, however adequately expressed, is in many ways fundamentally no different than a photograph.
           As John Berger has said, the "moment" in a painting, unlike in a photograph, never existed as such. "What the present and the future had in common, and to which painting through its very stillness referred, was a substratum, a ground of timelessness." It is this "mediation between the realm of the timeless and the visible and tangible," that renders painting, "more total and poignant than any other art. Hence its iconic function, and special power".
           In this sense, the stillness in painting is not stasis.

           The naturalness in the paintings of Velazquez provides a perfect example. Images which upon close inspection seem to be a collection of non-rational marks coalesce at a distance, echoing the effortlessness of human sight.
           In his critique of the work of Velazquez, R. A. M. Stevenson refers to the "ensemble" as the cohesive visual principle, without which the painting would dissolve into "a few disjointed facts of common realism". Velazquez treads the ground between convention of decorative effect, laws of composition, and the factuality of naturalistic observation. Here, Stevenson posits that Velazquez was discarding the harmonizing aesthetic principles so dear to the painters of the classical era in favor of the purely visual, prioritizing appearance, or effect, with nature as his guide. That Velazquez relied on the unifying power of tonal harmony is evident; Stevenson also asserts that he never entirely rejected previous Classical compositional norms.
           Many of the anti-classical, or modern, aspects of Velazquez's compositions are exemplified by Stevenson's statement that, "proportion cannot be done by rule; it is experimental and intuitive," seeming "to have grown up naturally". At the same time it is clear that the painting of Velazquez is deeply ordered.
           Yet this ordering is not the ordering of Classical idealization which sought to distill the many finer principles of mortal creatures into a single pure elixir. Bellori, who rejected naturalism for simply replicating "I difetti di corpi", (the flaws of the individual body), condemned naturalistic painters like Caravaggio for preferring "resemblance to beauty". This gives voice to the prevailing dualist paradigm that there is an adversarial relationship between the two. True, the idealization of nature butts up solidly against nature itself, but painting's object is not to reconcile this "opposition" between aesthetic laws and the observation of nature. Both exist, not in some homogenized harmony, but rather in a state of perpetual productive imbalance that provides representational painting's continual presence, its "dynamic stillness".
           The unanswered questions posed by Naturalistic painting keep the work in continuous dialogue. The metaphor of a dialogue finds its fulfillment in the transparency of Naturalistic painting's pictorial language that facilitates absorption; the grammar of the painting is readily accessible for it is that of sight.

           Contemporary representational painting should never be a compost of the past. It is not the inheritance of Classical prejudices, stale Academic practices, which make a fetish of Old Master tools and techniques, neither is it governed by vague ideals of truth and beauty. Ideals lack painterly particulars, and painters do not think in terms of vague beauty. Oil paint does nothing so well as address the concrete and factual. It approximates flesh and establishes the body as the surface of painting.
           The truths we can read in representational painting are those of human sight and memory. It embraces a rich variety individual phenomena, yet does not sacrifice any individual sensual detail, nor unravels, decontextualized, into Stevenson's "few disjointed facts".

Berger, John. Sense of Sight: Painting and Time. New York, Pantheon, 1985.
Stevenson, R. A. M. Velazquez. London, George Bell, 1902.
Bellori, Giovan Pietro. Le Vite de Pittori, Scultori et Architetti Moderni. Rome, 1672.

Curriculum Vitae

Born in 1968, Lee began his artistic training with former pupil of Arthur Maynard, Betty Lou Totten. He subsequently earned his Bachelor's Degree in Fine Art from New College. After studying in New Mexico with Leo Neufeld, his interest in the tradition of representational painting led him to the atelier of Charles Cecil in Florence. After studying and teaching figurative and portrait painting at the Cecil Studios for three years, Lee returned to the United States where he currently lives in North Carolina.

Education

1985-1987 Betty Lou Totten, Dunedin, FL. DFACC

1987-1991 New College, Sarasota, FL: graduated Bachelor of Arts, concentration in Fine Arts; Life Drawing Teaching Assistant

1995-1997 Leo Neufeld, Albuquerque, NM: private tuition

1997-2000 Charles H. Cecil Studios, Florence, Italy: completed 3 year course; Figure & portrait painting instructor & Studio Manager

Grants & Awards

1987 Freida L.Turner Memorial Grant

1990 Women's Exchange Continuing Education Grant

1998 Camille Claudel Foundation Grant

1999 Camille Claudel Foundation Grant

2000 Camille Claudel Foundation Grant

Commissions & Purchases

Portrait commissions, as well as other projects, are available in addition to the majority of paintings and drawings which appear here.

Each commission or purchase will be evaluated on a personal, case-by-case basis, through direct consultation.

Contact

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All works copyright Lee Johnson, 2002

There are many ways of conceiving painting where the critical criteria posited lie beyond its history and its uneasy relationship with its own telos, i.e., the idea that its origin, and therefore its end, are both shaped by purpose rather than possibility.
Ultimately, the process of representation is a recovery, a response to a set of visual stimuli, and an attempt to (re)create an optical impression (ie. sight). This said, the fulfillment of this mimetic function of painting requires more than the successful (re)creation of a visual effect. The rendering of an optical effect, however adequately expressed, is in many ways fundamentally no different than a photograph.
As John Berger has said, the "moment" in a painting, unlike in a photograph, never existed as such. "What the present and the future had in common, and to which painting through its very stillness referred, was a substratum, a ground of timelessness." It is this "mediation between the realm of the timeless and the visible and tangible," that renders painting, "more total and poignant than any other art. Hence its iconic function, and special power".
In this sense, the stillness in painting is not stasis.

The naturalness in the paintings of Velazquez provides a perfect example. Images which upon close inspection seem to be a collection of non-rational marks coalesce at a distance, echoing the effortlessness of human sight.
In his critique of the work of Velazquez, R. A. M. Stevenson refers to the "ensemble" as the cohesive visual principle, without which the painting would dissolve into "a few disjointed facts of common realism". Velazquez treads the ground between convention of decorative effect, laws of composition, and the factuality of naturalistic observation. Here, Stevenson posits that Velazquez was discarding the harmonizing aesthetic principles so dear to the painters of the classical era in favor of the purely visual, prioritizing appearance, or effect, with nature as his guide. That Velazquez relied on the unifying power of tonal harmony is evident; Stevenson also asserts that he never entirely rejected previous Classical compositional norms.
Many of the anti-classical, or modern, aspects of Velazquez's compositions are exemplified by Stevenson's statement that, "proportion cannot be done by rule; it is experimental and intuitive," seeming "to have grown up naturally". At the same time it is clear that the painting of Velazquez is deeply ordered.
Yet this ordering is not the ordering of Classical idealization which sought to distill the many finer principles of mortal creatures into a single pure elixir. Bellori, who rejected naturalism for simply replicating "I difetti di corpi", (the flaws of the individual body), condemned naturalistic painters like Caravaggio for preferring "resemblance to beauty". This gives voice to the prevailing dualist paradigm that there is an adversarial relationship between the two. True, the idealization of nature butts up solidly against nature itself, but painting's object is not to reconcile this "opposition" between aesthetic laws and the observation of nature. Both exist, not in some homogenized harmony, but rather in a state of perpetual productive imbalance that provides representational painting's continual presence, its "dynamic stillness".
The unanswered questions posed by Naturalistic painting keep the work in continuous dialogue. The metaphor of a dialogue finds its fulfillment in the transparency of Naturalistic painting's pictorial language that facilitates absorption; the grammar of the painting is readily accessible for it is that of sight.

Contemporary representational painting should never be a compost of the past. It is not the inheritance of Classical prejudices, stale Academic practices, which make a fetish of Old Master tools and techniques, neither is it governed by vague ideals of truth and beauty. Ideals lack painterly particulars, and painters do not think in terms of vague beauty. Oil paint does nothing so well as address the concrete and factual. It approximates flesh and establishes the body as the surface of painting.
The truths we can read in representational painting are those of human sight and memory. It embraces a rich variety individual phenomena, yet does not sacrifice any individual sensual detail, nor unravels, decontextualized, into Stevenson's "few disjointed facts".

Curriculum Vitae

Born in 1968, Lee began his artistic training with former pupil of Arthur Maynard, Betty Lou Totten. He subsequently earned his Bachelor's Degree in Fine Art from New College. After studying in New Mexico with Leo Neufeld, his interest in the tradition of representational painting led him to the atelier of Charles Cecil in Florence. After studying and teaching figurative and portrait painting at the Cecil Studios for three years, Lee returned to the United States where he currently lives in North Carolina.

Commissions & Purchases

Portrait commissions, as well as other projects, are available in addition to the majority of paintings and drawings which appear here.

Each commission or purchase will be evaluated on a personal, case-by-case basis, through direct consultation.