| For more information about this article or gallery, please call the gallery phone number listed in the last line of the article, "For more info..." |
October Issue 2006
Somerhill Gallery in Chapel Hill, NC, Features Works by Robert Johnson
Somerhill
Gallery in Chapel Hill, NC, is presenting the exhibit, Once
in a Lifetime, featuring works by one of NC's leading painters,
Robert Johnson, on view through Oct. 12, 2006. The exhibit offers
new allegorical botanical paintings.
Inspired by the recent "once in a lifetime" desert bloom, Johnson has spent many weeks touring all four of the major deserts on this continent. Witnessing the rare once-every-hundred-year transformation that occurs when the rains bring endless carpets of wildflowers to areas that we normally think of as dry desolate wastelands. In this recent series of desert transformations, Johnson puts to excellent use his unique technique of combining the detailed scientific precision of a botanist with the rich tradition of allegorical painting to bring us concepts of rebirth and renewal. Johnson's paintings convey to the viewer the vigor, beauty, and abundance that nature provides, even in the most unlikely of places.
Johnson is one of NC's premier artists, having been awarded a major permanent commission by the RDU Airport Authority. His work has been displayed throughout the southeast, including exhibits at the North Carolina Museum of Art and the Asheville Museum of Art. He is a past recipient of a NC Arts Council Project Grant and a 3 month residency fellowship to the Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco, CA. Most recently Johnson was awarded a NC Arts Council Fellowship Grant to study traditional painting in India, Nepal, and Bali. Evidence of his exploration and development in these exotic locals will be evident in his most recent body of work.
Somerhill Gallery Director, Joseph Rowand, recently commented, "This exhibition reflects Robert's journeys with sketches on paper, works on panel as well as canvas which reflects compelling images of America most of us do not see. Possessing a keenly observant eye, and being a seasoned visual storyteller Robert portrays the majestic strength and the awe of the natural world. Trained first as an abstract painter he later followed his heart into painting the natural, morphing into the mystical. The core of the land fuels his love of the outdoors in a way unique to him. A prodigious painter, he is collected widely."
For further information check our NC Commercial
Gallery listings, call the gallery at 919/968-8868 or at (www.somerhill.com).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing
Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2006 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2006 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.