Lisa Johnson Takes Your Breath Away at Westland Gallery

Reviewed by Beth Stewart

(Lisa Johnson, Photo – Westland Gallery.)

Lisa Johnson’s recent artist residency in Pouch Cove, Newfoundland, is the driving force behind her Full Circle exhibition at Westland Gallery.

While this was Johnson’s third month-long residency at Pouch Cove, this time was different.

In 2021 and 2022, she recalls clambering over rocks and sitting amongst lichen and berries to sketch. This time, she went to Pouch Cove during an East Coast winter, where the conditions are challenging and the landscape is stark. She encountered nature at its most elemental.

Johnson was excited to do a winter residency to bear witness to the dramatic contrast of snow against the black coastal rocks. It is a location she describes as “transcendent” and “raw”, alluding to its timelessness.

Wearing long johns and a parka, and with crampons on her boots to keep from slipping, Johnson was able to go out for hikes, drawing, and even a bit of plein air painting.

(Lisa Johnson, The Painter and the Poet. oil on canvas, 32 by 40 inches. Photo by Beth Stewart.)

On a typical day, she would paint in the studio first thing in the morning and later, if it warmed up a bit, go out for a hike either on her own or with other Pouch Cove residency artists. Returning to her studio, she’d paint for the remainder of the day on large canvases she’d stapled to the walls.

Charcoal gesture drawings have always been an important part of her practice; she loves their simplicity and energy. With this series of paintings, she aimed to achieve a similar aesthetic using oil paint on canvas. The resulting work is pared down to the point of abstraction.

It is an approach that perfectly captures the starkness of the landscape in winter and the drama of this Eastern coastline. It is evident in two oil-on-canvas pieces: “Drawing on Memories” and “Aerie”.

(Lisa Johnson, “Drawing on Memories” oil on canvas 22 by 24 inches. Photo by Beth Stewart.)

(Lisa Johnson, “Aerie”, oil on canvas, 40 by 38 inches. Photo by Beth Stewart.)

A particularly striking piece is “Silent Drift”, measuring 40-by-30-inches, it has an oriental flavour with its ink-like markings, flattened perspective, and preserved white space.

(Lisa Johnson, “Silent Drift”, oil on canvas, 40 by 30 inches. Photo by Beth Stewart.)

Full Circle includes landscape paintings created during this residency as well as work inspired by it and created after returning to her Ontario studio.

In the latter, Johnson continues with the approach that she began in Newfoundland. These paintings are large and gestural and employ a neutral palette. It is work she describes as closer to drawing.

(Lisa Johnson, “Early Riser”, oil on canvas, 32 by 40 inches. Photo by Beth Stewart.)

Full Circle also includes more colour-filled works from a spring and fall series, some from Newfoundland, and some from other Canadian locations.

These are sequestered in the upper level of the gallery and lean more toward using the visual vocabulary of color, value, shape, and composition to communicate memory while abstracting the landscape.