Johnson’s portrait of the cultural theorist Stuart Hall, who died in 2014, sits above her desk. He was an inspiration for and supporter of the Blk Arts Group. Credit… Ekua King.
“I tend to just make a mess.”
(Claudette Johnson)
Artist-blogger OutsideAuthority’s mention of an exhibition of work by Claudette Johnson in Birmingham (England) caused me to discover an article about Johnson’s first solo show in New York last year. These excerpts are from the article.
“When I was younger, I chose pastels as my main medium because they were so quick. I didn’t have to wait for the paint to dry.”
In 2021, Johnson began experimenting with oil paints. She said, “It brings me outside of my comfort zone.” Also, that in her life-size drawings of Black sitters her focus wasn’t on “creating perfect likeness but on capturing a feeling or a presence… Often the heads are cut off, or parts of them are missing, as if you just bumped into the person.”
Johnson often uses bold reds, yellows and blues as a rebellion against the gray and muted palette she loosely associates with the Bloomsbury Group, the influential 19th-century circle of British artists and writers. Credit… Ekua King.
Nowadays, I prepare a primer on the paper or the canvas and then go straight in. I don’t do preparatory sketches. I tend to just make a mess. Sometimes, it’s a lovely, charmed experience and everything’s more or less where it should be and I feel a rhythm and symmetry — and other times, it goes completely awry. [In reading this I realized how hard it is to give in and “just make a mess,” which inhibits (alas) my being a serious painter. It also reminded me of a comment by novelist George Saunders: “The holy estate of a writer is to be a little confused by what you’re doing.” A fetish for control seems to gravitate against the discipline of creativity, which is to be reckless.]
Asked when she knows when a work is done, Johnson said she doesn’t always know. I like her comment that she realizes that “at the point I keep making changes to a work, I need to make a new work.”
Here’s the last question in the interview, and Claudette Johnson’s answer (the link is worth clicking):
What’s your favorite artwork by someone else?
Rembrandt’s “Young Woman Sleeping” (c. 1654). It does everything I want my drawings to do.
(Kadish Morris, “An Artist Returns After a ‘Long Wilderness’,” New York Times, 3-9-23)
I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day. I like to read and memorize poetry.
EthicalDative 
Claudette Johnson (1959 – Present), Artist of the British West Midlands ‘Blk Art Group’
Johnson’s portrait of the cultural theorist Stuart Hall, who died in 2014, sits above her desk. He was an inspiration for and supporter of the Blk Arts Group. Credit… Ekua King.
Artist-blogger OutsideAuthority’s mention of an exhibition of work by Claudette Johnson in Birmingham (England) caused me to discover an article about Johnson’s first solo show in New York last year. These excerpts are from the article.
“When I was younger, I chose pastels as my main medium because they were so quick. I didn’t have to wait for the paint to dry.”
In 2021, Johnson began experimenting with oil paints. She said, “It brings me outside of my comfort zone.” Also, that in her life-size drawings of Black sitters her focus wasn’t on “creating perfect likeness but on capturing a feeling or a presence… Often the heads are cut off, or parts of them are missing, as if you just bumped into the person.”
Johnson often uses bold reds, yellows and blues as a rebellion against the gray and muted palette she loosely associates with the Bloomsbury Group, the influential 19th-century circle of British artists and writers. Credit… Ekua King.
Nowadays, I prepare a primer on the paper or the canvas and then go straight in. I don’t do preparatory sketches. I tend to just make a mess. Sometimes, it’s a lovely, charmed experience and everything’s more or less where it should be and I feel a rhythm and symmetry — and other times, it goes completely awry. [In reading this I realized how hard it is to give in and “just make a mess,” which inhibits (alas) my being a serious painter. It also reminded me of a comment by novelist George Saunders: “The holy estate of a writer is to be a little confused by what you’re doing.” A fetish for control seems to gravitate against the discipline of creativity, which is to be reckless.]
Asked when she knows when a work is done, Johnson said she doesn’t always know. I like her comment that she realizes that “at the point I keep making changes to a work, I need to make a new work.”
Here’s the last question in the interview, and Claudette Johnson’s answer (the link is worth clicking):
What’s your favorite artwork by someone else?
Rembrandt’s “Young Woman Sleeping” (c. 1654). It does everything I want my drawings to do.
(Kadish Morris, “An Artist Returns After a ‘Long Wilderness’,” New York Times, 3-9-23)
(c) 2024 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved
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About JMN
I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day. I like to read and memorize poetry.