Aaron Johnson
Walking in the woods began early in life and remains a starting point for my work. When looking at trees my eye is drawn to their gestures and to their underlying structure and geometry of forms. As the images develop in my studio, light and color define the shapes as multiple layers appear. My paintings use the traditional materials of oil on linen canvas and the woodcuts are printed with multiple colors on a 1947 Vandercook hand press. The process takes patience, but encourages a slower, more contemplative way of looking at life’s interconnections.
My first try at oil painting was at age five while living in Sequoia National Park. This early introduction to art and nature became an ongoing fascination and continued through college at UC Santa Cruz, where I focused on painting, printmaking and drawing. These studies included the Fifth-Year Program where I also worked as the studio technician and teaching assistant for the intaglio printmaking program. My first painting studio was in a small Victorian-era barn in Santa Cruz. After college I moved to Round Valley, California and converted the barn at The Yolla Bolly Press into a studio.
Santa Cruz studio
Round Valley studio
My education in printing continued at The Yolla Bolly Press where I learned the fundamentals of graphic design and the craft of letterpress printing. While at the Press I printed about thirty limited-edition books and had the opportunity to carve woodcut illustrations for The Tree and The Nature of Nature by John Fowles. Living in remote Round Valley also gave me time to observe nature and to begin my Tree series.
Printing at The Yolla Bolly Press
In 2002 I returned to Santa Cruz County to join my wife Anne in a small home and studio in the countryside north of Watsonville. In 2011 we moved to Live Oak where I expanded the garage into a backyard studio.
Anne and I have been fortunate to travel in the Americas including Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Mexico. Exploring how people have adapted to dramatically different environments and the cultures they created is something we both love. When looking at art, it often seems that ancient cultures formed the most intimate relationships with the places they called home, and created the most resonant forms of visual communication.
Selected Exhibitions and *One Person Shows
*Paintings and Woodcuts, Aptos Public Library, 2024
Annual Statewide Landscape Exhibition, Santa Cruz Art League, 2024 and most years since 2003
*Into the Woods, Scotts Valley Public Library, 2022
Salon at the Triton, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, 2019, 2018, 2016
Pajaro Valley Arts Gallery, Watsonville, 2024, 2019, 2010, 1995
*Ella's at the Airport, Watsonville, 2019, 2018, 2016
Voluminous Art, Mingei International Museum, San Diego, 2018
*California Trees, Negative Space Gallery, San Francisco, 2016
Santa Cruz Woodworkers, R. Blitzer Gallery, Santa Cruz, 2016
Santa Cruz Public Libraries, 2016, 2015, 2013
Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery, UC Santa Cruz, 2015, 1989, 1988
*Vino Cruz, Santa Cruz, 2014
*Om Gallery, Santa Cruz, 2014
Bridging Santa Cruz: Spanning 50 Years of Printmaking, Cabrillo Gallery, Aptos, 2014
*Main Street Garden & Café, Soquel, 2013
The Art of the Book in California, Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, 2011
*Los Árboles, Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery, UC Santa Cruz, 2011
STARS, The Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz, annually 2010-2003
Ink and Clay 36, Kellogg University Art Gallery, Cal Poly Pomona, 2010
Legends: A Juried Exhibition of California Printmaking, San Luis Obispo Art Center, 2010
Delta National Small Prints Exhibition (purchase awards), Bradbury Gallery, Arkansas State University, 2009, 2008
Oakland Museum Collector's Gallery, 2007
Monterey Museum of Art Biennial, 2005
Go Figure, Santa Cruz Institute of Contemporary Arts, 2004
Erickson Gallery, Healdsburg, 2004
All California Juried Exhibition, San Diego Museum of Art, 1998
*Round Valley Resource Center, Covelo, 1998
*James Irvine Gallery, Stanford University, 1996
The Pope Gallery, Santa Cruz, 1995
Round Valley Center for the Arts, Covelo, 1994, 1992
*University of California at Santa Cruz, 1988, 1983