Art Chowder January | February 2017, Issue 7 | Page 23

AARON CORDELL JOHNSON | In The Clouds

A
rtist Aaron Cordell Johnson lives in Moscow, Idaho
with his wife and four children. He received his BFA at
Pacific Northwest College of Art and his MFA at the University of Idaho. He currently teaches art courses at
Lewis-Clark State College and has been painting landscapes “en plein air” for the past 16 years.

Photo Credit: Joe Foster

As the son of a high school art teacher, he grew up in
an artistic family. He doesn’t remember actually making the decision to become an artist; it just seemed to
happen naturally. He says, “I feel I have always been
creating. Some of my earliest memories are of myself
painting or drawing with my father.”

He mentions feeling blessed by the support
of his parents who never questioned his
choice. Another fond childhood memory for
him is that of traveling with his family to National Parks.
“I remember the first time I went to Glacier
National Park - feeling the overwhelming
sense of how small I was in this world.“
He primarily paints in oil, but also uses watercolor and most recently gouache. When it
comes to painting, he finds that the subject
often determines the medium he will end up
using. He explains how each medium brings
its own personality to the work and therefore is unable to choose his favorite.
As for his process, he is predominantly a
plein air painter. He sets up an easel outdoors and paints on the spot then and there.
“I am looking for the experience of a place,

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