Space Between with Johnnene Maddison & Lisa Johnson

In Space Between, artists Johnnene Maddison and Lisa Johnson explore different ideas about space through abstract painting.
 
Thoughtful use of negative space is a prominent element in both collections. The empty areas on these canvases are as important as the busy brushwork in others. The artists also explore techniques for creating a feeling of space on a two-dimensional surface.

Johnnene Maddison has a long career in London as an established painter. In previous series, her focus was often on women and their rights, histories and challenges. She explored many mediums including photo collage, textiles and embroidery.
 
Returning to her studio after a serious health crisis, Maddison felt her focus change and she began working in acrylic and exploring the world of abstraction. Using a brush attached to the end of a long dowel, she forced a change in her work to a looser more gestural style.

Maddison breaks up the two-dimensional space on her canvas with energetic lines, fields of beautiful colour and abstract but suggestive form. By staying in the moment and channeling her experience into the work she expresses ideas about identity, womanhood and self-reinvention.

Lisa Johnson uses light and atmosphere to create a sense of space and vastness in her landscape inspired abstracts. Her style incorporates both thin and thick paint application and rich, moody colour.

​Lisa’s smallest paintings are more realistic landscape studies which she uses as a reference for the larger and more abstract canvases.
 
As a child, Lisa spent many summers near Bon Echo and Mazinaw Lake, which continues to serve as a predominant source of inspiration for Lisa, who often from her cottage in this region.
 
During her years at OCAD, Johnson was influenced by studies with Tom Dean and following that by Joyce Wieland, for whom she worked while Joyce was preparing for her AGO retrospective. Studies in Italy and Berlin have also influenced her work.

Johnnene Maddison - The Day Dreamer

Lisa Johnson - Upward and Onward