About the Artist
Emerging artist Talya Johnson (Tali) was born in Israel and is living in the Pacific Northwest. The beauty and spiritual depth of her surroundings continually inspire her to seek knowledge and understanding through observational art. As her paint-loaded brush searches to follow the path of light dancing across her beloved subjects, Talya reaches for an understanding that illuminates beyond the simple confines of language. A professional artist who enjoys traditional painting, she cherishes developing relationships with her art buyers and fellow art lovers, feeling that creating an original painting is a collaborative community effort. Whether interacting with an art collector, seasoned local artists or mentoring a new artist Tali brings her genuine enthusiasm and love for humanity to the forefront of her art form and profession.
Talya's art work is largely figurative and representational, though she also produces abstract art and abstract paintings as well. Her preferred 2-D traditional media is oil paint but she is also skilled using in photography, acrylics painting, watercolor painting, ink, egg tempera, and dry media like soft pastels, colored pencil, charcoal, or graphite. Tali enjoys many other visual art forms and is adept in 3-D sculptural materials such as clay, cardboard, wire, and fiber arts. Ever focused on the materiality of her projects Tali also enjoys grinding her own paints and researching historical pigment. She is well versed on colors used in classical art, their history, and symbolic implications.
Tali's art style and diverse work are influenced by both Modern Art art movement of Impressionism, Neoimpressionism, Fauvism, as well as traditional Academic Realism. Her colorful originals are poignant and heartfelt painterly accounts of her uncommon contemporary perspective.
Whether creating an oil portrait, modern still life, or abstract landscape with a palette knife, Tali believes in recording only what she herself has experienced first-hand. Her beautiful painting is largely process driven by concepts emerging from the physical act of making or creating. "When painting or drawing observationally, I find my mind travels to a 'thin place'- a liminal space where spirituality and physicality collapse, time doesn't exist, and the convergence of reality and fantasy reveal a beauty beyond the vision of ordinary reality. The resulting deepening of insight through aesthetic arrest reveals a truth that I long to capture and share with my viewers."
The collaborative nature of portrait and figure painting is particularly meaningful to Talya. "I enjoy feeling like I'm in the inner circle of my subjects-that I get to experience their presence from a privileged point of view not available to the outside world. This enjoyment facilitates a lasting respect and curiosity, broadening my minuscule perspective of the human experience." This enthusiasm grows as a readable image starts to appear through the painter's mark making, enabling the canvas painting to find its voice. The resultant style of artwork will usually include fairly loose, instinctive mark-making with rich impasto notes, right along with precise academic rendering, informed by her fascination with 19th Century art.
Color harmonies and the use of complementary colors play a dominant role in most of her work, second only to value driven compositions founded on universal harmonic intervals with immediate graphic impact when seen from a distance. Upon closer inspection Tali's creations utilizing traditional techniques provide viewers with deeper visual and conceptual meaning through the use of texture variety, unexpected detail, and iconography.
"Whether painting a portrait, a landscape, or a still-life, my works' emotive qualities and narratives emerge naturally from the painstaking act of crafting them, as if they materialized from the dream-like space I inhabit when I'm busy creating."
Enjoy Talya Johnson's online art gallery where each original painting for sale is a beautiful piece that celebrates the joys of being human. Her original art features a vibrant color palette which no photograph can reproduce. Her paintings will shine through any art collection, or focal centerpieces when hung up alone.
