Mary-Anne Johnston
Mary-Anne Johnston -
I am an artist living in the village of Lakefield, Ontario. I work/play in acrylics on canvas and wooden panels, creating textures and dimension by layering, scratching, rubbing or sanding. My brushwork can have an atmospheric quality that reads as non-objective so the observer may feel an inner contradiction between the subject matter and the style. By reducing the background, the narrative element comes into focus and attention settles on the universality suggested in the image.
My subject matter ranges from non-representational images to abstracted landscapes which may include vehicles (I particularly love a local red truck), domestic and wild animals and birds and lately, the surreal. I am drawn to the beauty and the mystery inherent in the landscape as well as the beauty and joy humans may experience in the relationship with animals. My paintings reflect our varied relationships with animals that may challenge our ideas of separate fields and models for animal and human psychology.
Sometimes my subject matter expresses my frustration, fear, anger and despair concerning the Climate Catastrophe and our self-destructive denial and refusal to address it with serious measures. Art helps to metabolize challenging emotions. For me it is becoming part of my witnessing of the situation and an expression of my love for the beauty and spirit of non human beings.
In the last few years I have been developing a playful, surreal series loosely drawn from my training at the C.G Jung Institute in Zurich, poking fun at the training in Alchemy which is a mystery on so may levels.