Lisa Johnson - "what, why, how"

Lisa Johnson
"Considerations 2020", "Thinking 2020"

Lisa Johnson’s creative journey over the past year has faced many ups and downs and challenges due to the pandemic. It was a feeling of newfound freedom for Johnson that emboldened her to paint solely for herself, but with an added sense of isolation that left her with what she describes as somber introspection. 

​On this introspection, Johnson writes “With all the uncertainty of this past year --not just with the pandemic but with the political chaos in general and the worries for the future, I often find myself questioning my purpose. What to paint? How to paint? Why to paint? Certainly I've been more aware of my own mortality.”
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Johnson’s newest work found inspiration from memories of driving trips that she took over this past year exploring new places throughout Ontario. Traveling from the shores of Lake Superior to as far as Wawa, Johnson took her studio on the road, sketching and painting along the way. Her work in abstract landscape represents an element of escapism and a deep appreciation for Canadian scenery.

Bigger Spaces 2020

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Lisa Johnson is a painter based in Toronto, Ontario. She graduated with honours from the Ontario College of Art, where she was awarded the Mrs. W.O. Forsythe Award for 4th year women painters in 1996. Johnson’s intensely gestural paintings are inspired by on-site studies, with an emphasis on space and movement to represent the passage of time of an evolving landscape.