Liberty University Art Gallery hosts first fall show
Art show — Spectators gather at the Liberty University Art Gallery to view and enjoy the art of L. Diane Johnson. Photo credit: Jaja Hsu
Show features work of artist Diane Johnson
The Liberty University Art Gallery celebrated its first exhibition of the fall 2011 semester with the opening night of “Impressions: Plein Air and Studio Paintings by L. Diane Johnson” on Thursday evening.
In the gallery, a person cannot escape the radiant natural beauty of each painting.
“There are pieces in the collection that are from earlier in my career and the bulk is from the past five or 10 years of painting,” Johnson said. “Because it is a college environment, I wanted to show the range of work that I have done so they (students) can see that they can do more than one thing if they want to. With every painting, I’ve learned something.”
Most of the paintings include boats, homes, gardens, rivers and other outdoor landscape styles as their subject matter. However, one particular painting differs from the others surrounding it.
To the left of the entrance doorway hangs a painting of a young Native American woman.
Impressions — Johnson portrays her travels to places far and near, such as Europe and the Grand Canyon, in her collection of en plein air pieces, which she describes as a sampler similar to a box of Whitman’s chocolate. Photo credit: Alyssa Bockman
While it may easily seem out of place, Johnson explains that the Native American woman is a self-portrait of her as a 15-year-old. She goes on to explain that the painting represents the early times of her art career in 1984. The rest of the paintings in the gallery were painted in the last 10 years.
“I have painted thousands of paintings. This is just a taste, just a scope, of my art,” Johnson said. She refers to the collection of her art as similar to a Whitman’s chocolate sampler.
“It’s almost a mini-retrospective,” Johnson said. “I’ve done gallery shows for 30 years, but never a solo show. It’s really extraordinary to see this in a museum quality venue.”
Johnson, a New Jersey native and a North Carolina convert, has portrayed her travels to Niagara Falls, Italy, France, the Blue Ridge Mountains and beyond with vivid paintings, many of which are en plein air pieces, meaning they were done on location.
“The experience has been nothing short of profound. The landscape comes alive as I work in the moment to grasp the fleeting light that defines the scenes before me,” Johnson said, “Not everything you paint will be a masterpiece, but everything you paint may lead up to a masterpiece. I still learn with every painting.”
“Each time I step outside, I am even more filled with the wonder of what God has created around us, for us. It is to Him that my art is dedicated,” Johnson said in her artist’s statement.
The Art Gallery will continue to host the “Impressions” Exhibit through Nov. 5. Johnson’s work is also for sale at the event.