My painting most often draws on landscape imagery, in particular the assemblage of trees in the bush or trees in front of water.
Over the past year necessity has seen a change of subject to interiors, flowers and everyday objects. Study of the visual complexity of the subject en-plein-air or at close quarters becomes a study of abstraction as I form the pictorial field on the canvas.
My treatment of objects and the spaces between them as having equal value leads to ambiguities in the reading, which is something I love to contemplate as a viewer. It leads to complexity and possibility.
I like a painting to open up at first look then shift focus rather than one in which expectations are reinforced.Since working en-plein-air has become important to me in recent years,
I enjoy observation of perceptions and impressions and have found pleasure in introducing a naturalistic handling of the subject. I proceed on each painting with a notion that freedom in method and approach is always available to me.
Kerry Johns, 2021
2021 Splendid Isolation, Artsite Galleries, Sydney, NSW
2018 The Way of the Forest, Artsite Galleries, Sydney, NSW
2018 In the Company of Trees, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW
2017 The Lie of the Land, Artsite Galleries, Sydney, NSW
2017, 11, 09 Ivy Hill Gallery, Wapengo, NSW
2015 Forest Subjective, Form Studio and Gallery, Queanbeyan, ACT
2013 Under Southern Skies, Charles Hewitt Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2012 Taking PLACE, Chapman Gallery, Canberra, ACT
2008, 06 Katoomba Fine Art, Katoomba, NSW
2004, 02 Ezair Gallery, New York, USA
2002 Penrith Regional Gallery, Penrith, NSW
Oz Arts Magazine, Issue 11 2017, Mythic Landscape of Kerry Johns, pp25-32
Hampshire, Carole. Artists Observed, University of New South Wales Press, 2007
McCormack, Ed. Gallery & Studio, New York.Vol 7 No1 Sept/Oct 2004
Bronwyn Watson, The Lewers Vision, Look Magazine, Art Gallery of NSW, April 2004
Flatt, Naomi. Eyeline, contemporary visual arts, Special Issue, 2001
Thomas, Lynden. Textile Fibre Forum Vol20, No62, 2001
Oz Arts magazine, Issue 13, 1996, p72, 3 plates and cover.
Ambrus, C.(ed.), The Unseen Art Scene: 32 Australian women artists, Irrepressible Press 1995 pp84-87 5 plates.
Speirs, Hugh (Foreword by Manning Clark, preface by John Olsen), Landscape Art and the Blue Mountains. Sydney, Australia: Alternative Publishing Co-Operative Ltd, 1981, 3 plates
2016 Winner, EMSLA - Eutick Memorial Still Life Award, (Judge: John McDonald), Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW
2016 First Prize, Empire Global Art Award, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, ACT
2015 Highly Commended, M16 Drawing Prize, M126 Artspace, Griffith, ACT.
2008 Basil Sellers Art Prize, Eurobodalla, NSW
1997 Blue Mountains Art Prize, Blue Mountains, NSW.
1995 Blue Mountains Art Prize, Katoomba, NSW.
Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery Collection
Kedumba Drawing Award Collection
Basil Sellers Collection
Blue Mountains City Council Collection
Bi-Centennial Acquisition Blue Mountains City Council Collection
Australia and Internationally.