David E Johnston, RSW

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David E Johnston RSW: Artist’s Statement

Most artists look for something fresh to paint; frankly I find that quite boring.

For me it is much more exciting to find fresh meaning in something familiar.

Andrew Wyeth

 

For me, the desire to paint originates in a ‘sense of place’. I have been painting Mearns landscapes, shorelines and seascapes since my late teens and, like Wyeth, believe that a lifetime of painting is to be found within a few miles of one’s home.

 

For me ‘home’ is the Mearns & my work is firmly located in – and inspired by – this part of this world.  I never tire of it – the long furrows, first light on the Grampians, the beauty of an Autumn day when the hairst is under way, the landscape in Spring when clouds move across the land under a constantly changing light. It’s a unique place – bound up as it is for me with so many memories.

For most of my career, I worked outside in the landscape itself & embraced the spontaneity which is, for me, the essence of working ‘on the spot’.  Watercolour responds in a uniquely sensitive way to the atmosphere in which the work is created. Working in the drying wind of a hot July day was quite different to painting in the dying light of a soft October afternoon as the haar drifted in from the sea over Garvock and into the Howe.  The rapidly changing light also forced me to work quickly – to take risks.

When I took early retirement from teaching in 2009 in order to paint and exhibit more widely, my working method changed and my work is now mostly studio-based.  I find I can explore aspects of the medium which were impossible when working with the various constraints of painting on the spot. Now, my watercolours are the product of a much slower process of development; they are less ‘spontaneous’ but, I hope, reflect similar preoccupations.  I now work from sketches & digital images which act as references and provide the material/ subject matter which compose the work.  But the real source is visual memory & my aim remains to get as close to the original experience of being in the landscape as I can.

For a work to be successful, I believe it must do more than replicate a scene or capture a moment in time in the way a photograph might; rather it must bear witness to the act of seeing and remain true to the impulse which gave rise to it. Above all, it must connect with the artist’s emotional response to the landscape. If it succeeds in this, then it will have made its mark.

My own work is an attempt to record and celebrate the natural beauty of the Mearns landscape and shoreline as it changes with the Seasons.

 

David E Johnston RSW - Curriculum Vitae

One-Man & Featured Artist Exhibitions

  • Montrose Public Library (1982, 1984)
  • Riverside Gallery, Stonehaven (1986)
  • Brechin Public Library (1986)
  • Castlegait Gallery, Montrose (1988)
  • Gallery Heinzel, Aberdeen (1991)
  • Tolquhon Gallery, Ellon (1992, 1994, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2021)
  • Bank Street Gallery, Kirriemuir: By Shore and Field Edge (2012)
  • Gallery at Fifty-Five (Now Eion Stewart Fine Art) Stonehaven: A Sense of Place (2016)
  • Gallery Heinzel, Aberdeen, with Grace Cameron & Ian Rawnsley (2018)
  • Tolquhon Gallery, Ellon with Kirsten Cohen (2021)
  • Tatha Gallery, Newport (2025)

Group & Mixed Exhibitions

  • Nine North-East Artists, Castlegait Gallery, Montrose (1989)
  • Singer-Friedlander/ Sunday Times Watercolour Competitions (Finalist 1990 & 1999)
  • Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours Annual Exhibitions (1991, 2015, 2017 – 2025)
  • Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, Mall Galleries, London (1990, 1991, 2010, 2022)
  • Eduardo Alessandro Studios, Broughty Ferry (1980s)
  • South West Gallery, Texas (1992)
  • Iona House Gallery, Woodstock, England (2002)
  • Grey McGear Modern, Santa Monica, California – ‘Living Memory’ Exhibition (2002)
  • Milton of Crathes Gallery, Banchory (2009 – 2016)
  • Artaboyne Annual Exhibition, Aboyne (2015)
  • Eion Stewart Fine Art – until 2018 Gallery @ 55, Stonehaven (2012 – 2021)
  • RSW Summer Exhibitions (Lillie Art Gallery, 2017, & The Meffan, Forfar, 2018; Dunoon, 2019)
  • Aberdeen Artists’ Society (Various dates, 1971-Present)
  • Tolquhon Gallery, Ellon (1988 – Present)
  • Gallery Heinzel, Aberdeen (1989 – Present)
  • Collinton Arts, Edinburgh (2024)
  • Impressions of Eternity, A Celebration of the Art of Watercolour,  Villa Falconieri, Frascati, Rome 31st May – 2nd June 2024

 

 

 Awards

    • Joint Winner, Apache North Sea Award: Aberdeen Artists’ Annual Exhibition (2015)
    • Elected member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (2017)
    • Nominated for membership of RSW Council (2019)
    • Awarded ‘Best Landscape’ in Professional category of SAA Artist of the Year Competition (2019)
    • Received Sir William Gillies Award for landscape watercolour ‘A Summer Place, The Mearns’ at the 140th Annual Exhibition of the RSW (February, 2021)
    • Elected RSW Vice President East (October, 2021)
    • Received the Alison Prosser prize for landscape watercolour: ‘Making Tracks into Winter’ at the 141st Annual Exhibition of the RSW (December, 2021)
    • Elected Honorary Treasurer RSW (October, 2022)

Works in the Collections of:

      • Aberdeenshire Council
      • BLESMA, the British Limbless Ex-Servicemen’s Association
      • The Royal Bank of Scotland
      • Brimmond Medical Group, Aberdeen
      • The Town of Clermont-Ferrand, France & Private collections throughout the world
      • Private collections around the world

Painting Courses

      • Artists’ Painting Class – Mearns Community Education Workshops (2011 – 2012)
      • Art at The Venue, Laurencekirk (2013 – 2020)
      • Tolquhon Gallery Art Workshops – Art on the Green (2010 -2014)
      • St Andrews Summer Art Course: Sketching in Watercolour – Guest Tutor (2010)
      • Watercolour Weekends at the Grassic Gibbon Centre, Arbuthnott (2011 – 2013)
      • Watercolour Painting ‘By Shoreline & Harbour’, Johnshaven (2014)
      • Painting Weekends, The Burn House, Edzell (2012 -2024)
      • ‘Focus on Foregrounds’: Upper Deeside Art Society Watercolour Workshop (2014)
      •  Catterline Painting Weekends (2015,2016)

 

 

 

Lectures/Speaking Engagements

      • The Grassic Gibbon Centre, Arbuthnott: Mearns Connections – Joan Eardley – A Personal Tribute’ (2010)
      • Upper Deeside Art Society, Tonal Painting & The Scottish Tradition (2011)
      • Stonehaven Art Society, The Tonal Tradition in Painting (2011)
      • Arbroath Art Society, The Way I See It (2013)
      • Upper Deeside Art Society, The Making of a Masterpiece: Thomas Cole’s ‘Oxbow’, 1836 (2017)

Publications/Articles

      • Leslie Mitchell, The Mearns & Me in ‘The Speak of the Place’, the newsletter of the Friends of the Grassic Gibbon Centre (Spring & Autumn  editions, 2015)
      • Joan Eardley’s Catterline: Discovering the Artist’s Voice: article commissioned by Andy Hall in Aberdeenshire – a New Perspective (2017)
      • Magnificent Mearns: Article on my Work by Rosie Morton in Scottish Field (March, 2019 edition). In Leopard edition of the Magazine, (pp 26-27)
      • Joan Eardley: A Personal Tribute Published by The Grassic Gibbon Centre, Arbuthnott to mark the Centenary of the Artist’s birth (May, 2021)
      • Capturing The Light Article by Jamie Wilde in Your Life section of The Courier & P&J (September, 2021)

 

David E Johnston RSW, June, 2024