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. 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 Johnson was born in Kellogg Idaho in February 1947. The artist's father, a strong Finnish farmer became a miner in the Sunshine and Bunker Hill mines in Idaho when he moved the family from his childhood farm in Hughenden, Alberta to the United States, settling in Idaho in the mid-forties. Changing careers due to ill health caused by working in the maze of over 180 miles of tunnels reaching a mile below the surface her family relocated and bought a small motel in the remote town of Eastport Idaho on the Canadian border. As a middle child, she assisted her father who was ailing from severe rheumatoid arthritis and became his willing hands. He taught her carpentry skills and independence. She was never reluctant to take long jaunts in the wilderness Bitterroot mountains. Setting the stage for her preference for solitude. Encouraged by her mother to fill her hours with drawing Johnson has been painting "since memory," and her childhood paintings often featured ink drawings of the northern Rocky mountains or horses she loved visiting from the neighbors corral. She earned her Bachelors from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Masters Degrees from Oklahoma State University. She earned Teachers Certification from the University of Tulsa. Johnson did not begin showing her work until she was thirty years old when she debuted her work at Fields Gallery in Tulsa. Oklahoma.
In 2019, Johnson was awarded a grant from the Charlotte, NC Arts and Science Council. ASC grants are rewards to deserving creative individuals providing financial assistance to pursue projects that further their artistic development and provide exposure and recognition in the local community. Her work is in numerous public and private collections. Until moving to Hanalei, Kauai in 2009, Johnson has lived in numerous locations with her corporate job with IBM. Retiring in 2010. She currently lives and paints in both Hawaii and North Carolina with her partner, the writer Carol Washburn.
