LYDIA B. JOHNSTON
ABOUT THE ARTIST

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I am a professional artist living and working in southern Vermont. My passion is for color. My oil landscapes are impressionistic. My goal is to capture a fleeting moment in time, the swaying seed heads of ripening grasses, the sparkle of wildflowers in a meadow. I am interested in the mood of the moment rather than the actual details of a location. A sense of the place is created without providing all the details, drawing you back continually to find something new.

I have been working with color and design for the past twenty-three years. I started in fabric, creating my own designs for wall hangings and painting and dying my materials. These wall hangings are purely abstract, but often evoke a sense of the world around us.

Color seduces me, the pale green tinged with red of a new maple leaf unfurling against the gray of a branch; the soft yellow of a daffodil against the deep blue of a cobalt vase. In my studio I search for just the right combinations of colors to captivate, to create movement at the same time as balance and harmony.

In 2003, I began to work with oil paints from a desire to have more control of my colors. The serendipity of the fabric dying process was exhilarating, but unpredictable.

Painting with oils gives me the control over color I was searching for. And with the switch in medium, my work changed from purely abstract to expressing landscapes. I have lived for more than twenty-nine years in a secluded spot in southwestern Vermont. Much of my inspiration comes from the passing seasons and the fields and woods surrounding me.

Home | Blog | News | Oil Paintings | Prints | Textile Art | About the Artist | Links