December 2, 2023 – January 20, 2024
Lonsdale gallery is pleased to present Terra Nova, a new solo exhibition by Canadian landscape painter Lisa Johnson. The exhibition features the artist’s new series of airy minimalist large oil sketch paintings, which began on the rugged northern east coast of Newfoundland.
Lisa Johnson, TERRA NOVA, Gallery View
Lonsdale Gallery
Lisa Johnson
Terra Nova
2023oil on canvas
54 x 72 inches (framed)$8,800
These works began during an artist residency in Pouch Cove, Newfoundland two years ago. The significance of the show title, Terre Nova, is multi-layered as it refers not only to the landscape of Newfoundland but to landscapes transformed by the extreme climate crisis-related events to which we have been witness. Finally a large-scale, drawing-based approach in my painting is a new direction in my practice. Working with a limited palette, the paintings retain the essential qualities of gestural drawing, while light-filled and expressive brushwork capture the movement and drama of powerful landscapes at an elemental level.
Lisa Johnson
All That’s Left
2023
oil on canavs
40 x 64 inches
$5,600
Lisa Johnson
Large Oil sketch II ( Pouch Cove)2023oil on canvas36 x 50 inches (framed)$4000
Lisa Johnson has been capturing the vast majesty of Canada’s rocky landscape for over 20 years capturing the unique energy and rhythms of the land. Her striking new series draws inspiration from the northern east coast of Newfoundland – the stark beauty of the shoreline and raw, essential attributes of terrain.
Lisa Johnson, TERRA NOVA, Gallery View
Lonsdale Gallery
Lisa Johnson
Tempest2023
oil on canvas
64 x 96 inches$14,000
The artist’s most minimalistic series to date, Johnson strips her compositions down to the most basic elements: line and form, complimented by subtle organic colours. Beginning with free flowing dry-brushed lines to render the characteristics of the landscape. She builds her compositions using subtle shading and fine atmospheric washes to creates an evocative almost impressionistic effect.
Lisa Johnson
Large Oil Sketch IV (Pouch Cove)
2022
oil on canvas
48 x 54 inches (framed)
$5,800
I have always been drawn to rocky landscapes and so Newfoundland was an ideal muse for painting. I was overwhelmed by the stark beauty and intense drama of the shoreline, and this experience sparked a new approach to my work. The raw, elemental quality of the sculptural landforms, subtle palette of golden grasses and pale lichens, foggy greys of the sea and sky and the deep contrasting colours of the rock moved me towards ever-greater simplification of colour and composition.
Lisa Johnson
Vortex (in C Minor)2023
oil on canvas
52 x 72 inches (framed)$8,500
Through this process of aesthetic simplification and reduction, her paintings appear illusory and dreamlike. The rough rocks of the coastal terrain emerge from the distance, like a mirage. As an artist, Johnson prioritizes capturing the memory and embodied experience of being immersed in the terrain, rather than providing a representation that is true to life. Johnson’s painting invite viewers to engage with her imagery by allowing visual space for their own stories and memories to seep in between the lines.
Lisa Johnson, TERRA NOVA, Gallery View
Lonsdale Gallery
Drawing gesturally on a large scale necessitates a physicality and grandeur of expression, like an improvised solo dance on an empty stage. This approach came naturally to me as I studied dance before becoming a painter. Additionally, listening to specific pieces of music while working has always been a vital part of my process. Terre Nova brings together everything I love: dance, drawing, music, painting, sculpture and landscape.
Lisa Johnson
Large Oil Sketch IV (Pouch Cove)
2022
oil on canvas
48 x 54 inches (framed)
$5,800
Lisa Johnson, TERRA NOVA, Gallery View
Lonsdale Gallery
Lisa Johnson’s life and work seem to revolve around landscape in one way or another. Her father, is a Landscape Architect; and her mother’s father was in charge of lumbermills in Northern Ontario in the first half of the last century. While spending her early years in Toronto, every summer was spent with her grandmother on Mazinaw Lake, surrounded by towering pines and in sight of the dramatic cliffs of Bon Echo.
Johnson’s current work continues with the large and gestural approach that she began in Newfoundland. Her exploration of a more minimalist approach in terms of colouration; making the work closer to drawings in some ways.
Johnson’s paintings have been seen in solo and group exhibitions throughout Canada, including Gurevich Fine Art and Soul Gallery in Winnipeg; Project Gallery as well as Lonsdale Gallery in Toronto; Westland Gallery in London, ON and James Baird Gallery in Newfoundland. My work is part of private and corporate collections in the U.S.A., Europe, Asia and Canada.