Jay J. Johnson

Jay J. Johnson
Jay J. Johnson lives the life of an adventurer; he has followed the sun as his compass and has slept under the stars. He paints the animals he has seen on his 2,700-mile walk from Mexico to Canada along the mountain chains of California, Oregon, and Washington.

He paints the terrain he has traveled on his 3,000 mile bicycle tour across the southwestern deserts of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. And he captures the seasons as he saw them when he hiked the Wind River Mountain range in Wyoming. It is this diverse experience and love for the outdoors that he brings to his painting.

Jay Johnson grew up on a Massachusetts peninsula surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the sights and sounds of an ocean community. His love with the outdoors was evident at an early age. At seventeen, he climbed all 48 peaks in the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire, the first person to ever accomplish this feat. After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree at Cornell University, he went on to perfect his own style of painting.

You can find Jay working in his studio from thousands of photographs that he has taken on his expeditions. Combining memory and imagination, his painting have evolved into a unique combination of textures and dramatic illumination that give the viewer a strong sense of mood and realism.