Cecile johnson artist biography
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A review of an exhibit on the Champs Elysee in Paris described her painting:
“She captures the atmosphere and sparkling light of the out-of-doors and recreates it in her watercolors."
Cecile Johnson studied at the American Academy of Art, Chicago; School of the Art Institute; Macalaster College; University of Colorado; University of Wisconsin; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; and at Scripps College, Claremont, California.
In 1943, when she moved west to southern California, she came under the influence of the California School.
She lived and painted in Riverside, studying with the California School watercolorist Millard Sheets, and was influenced by the work of emerging watercolorists including Rex Brandt and Dong Kingman.
Family Visiting Mountain Park
About the artist:
With her transparent watercolors, actions acrylics and oils of exotic landscapes, Cecile Johnson has gained worldwide recognition as a painter of sports and winter Olympic events, and for depicting the unique beauty of locations around the world.
Other Sponsorships have come from american Express; 3-M; Equitable Life (for tennis) and Travelers Insurance ( for golf); Texaco and Mobil Oil (Great Ports of the world series); General Electric and General Mills; The Broadmoor, Hilton, Trust Houses Forte, Vista and Brown Palace hotels; Ford Motor Company; the U.S. Amateur Hockey Association and the U.S.
Department of State. Cecile Johnson was a Board member of the American Watercolor Society, and is currently a director of the National Museum of Sports Art, Society of Illustrators member, and President of the Preservation of Traditional Values in the Fine Arts.
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She was elected to the boards of the American Watercolor Society and the National Art Museum of Sport.Born in a blizzard in Jamestown on March 4, 1916, Ms.
Johnson always retained a love of love of snow and winter sports. Her paintings reflect a spontaneous joy of life, prized by collectors for their illuminous qualities, sense of immediacy, power and intensity. It was here that she moved out of the traditional confines of the studio and focused on capturing the natural California landscape, with active, expressive brushstrokes and open compositions.
With her transparent watercolors, action sketches and oils, Johnson gained worldwide recognition for capturing the unique beauty and feeling of natural color, light and shade of locations around the world and as a painter of sports and winter Olympic events.
Cecile Johnson’s paintings reflect a spontaneous joy of life and are prized by collectors for their luminous qualities, sense of immediacy, power and intensity.
A.B. Phillips of Sweden commissioned paintings and serigraph editions of Ingemar Stenmark and Bjorn Borg. A TWA commission with a series on Paris, London and Rome complete with an exhibition on the Champs Elysees led to another from Harrod's of London.
(“Philip Johnson, 75, Pastor Who Pressed for Social Harmony,”New York Times, January 8, 1991.) Following Dr. Johnson’s death, she married lawyer Henry L. Pierson of Sloatsburg, New York.
Cecile Ryden Johnson was a twentieth century American watercolorist who embraced the “plein air” tradition of artists who left their studios for the “open air” and painted in natural settings directly from nature.
She was the first woman to be commissioned by the U.S. navy as a combat artist to paint the activities of Waves, Women Marines and navy Nurses.
ABOUT CECILE JOHNSON
New York United States 1916 -2010
Cecile Ryden Johnson, AWS, an internationally known painter of the winter Olympic Games, sports and exotic landscapes, passed away quietly after a long illness on the 26th of November 2010 surrounded by family and friends at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC.
Her watercolors reflect a spontaneous joy of life and are prized for their luminous qualities, sense of immediacy, power and intensity. She was commissioned to paint live action portraits of athletes from Bjorn Borg to Jean-Claude Killy, Billy Jean King, Steve and Phil Mahre as well as sporting events including the US Open, the Kentucky Derby and the Olympic hockey game between the USA and the USSR at Lake Placid in 1980. Selected as the official artist to paint five winter Olympic Games, Ms.
Johnson was frequently broadcast live painting on the slopes and at rink side by ABC Wide World of Sports, Canadian Broadcasting, the BBC, CNN and other networks.
Her New York studio was at the fabled Hotel des Artistes, but she almost invariably painted on location – traveling across the United States, the Caribbean and around the world to capture landscapes both familiar and distant. She distilled the beauty of cities in Europe and Japan and remote locations in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, winning gold medals at major exhibitions, including the annual show of the American Watercolor Society. She painted every major ski mountain in the United States, published as the Memorable Mountains Series in Skiing Magazine and in 2007 was honored by the North American Snowsports Journalists Association with their lifetime achievement award. She was the first woman to be commissioned by the U.S.
Navy as a combat artist to paint the activities of WAVES, Women Marines and Navy nurses.
Primarily a watercolorist, she worked in other media as well. She designed stained glass windows for the Children’s Chapel in Chicago, and her design in gold of the Olympic torch set with a diamond was chosen by the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Her work is held in many museum and private collections including those of King Gustav XVI of Sweden, Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and Emperor Akihito of Japan. Her paintings have been exhibited in many solo exhibitions and are widely reproduced as fine art prints.
She studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago and at Augustana and Macalaster Colleges. She began her professional career as a painter in southern California, where she studied with the renowned painter Millard Sheets, learning the techniques of luminous, open-air watercolor painting and a contemporary sensibility to color and composition. She accompanied her husband, the Rev.
Dr. Philip A. Johnson, a Lutheran minister, to Chicago, Illinois in the nineteen fifites where she supported his landmark work integrating the first Protestant church on Chicago’s south side, Salem Lutheran Church, a period that was chronicled in his book, Call me Neighbor, Call me Friend. She was selected as an artist for American Artist cards, and created the most widely circulated Christmas Card with the Rockefeller Center skating motif.
Cecile Johnson's paintings of the Caribbean are legendary, resulting in commissions from the Bank of Bermuda, Triminghams, the Virgin Islands and Jamaican governments, Rock Resorts and Princess hotels. The sponsored of the annual hot air balloon festival in Albuquerque invited Cecile to paint their events in threes occasions.
In Anticipation of the 1992 French Winter Olympics, Officials from the Savoie area of France came to her studio at Des Artistes in New York to invite her to depict the action there. ABC Wide World of Sports, Canadian Broadcasting, the BBC, CNN and other television networks have broadcast her painting live at world skating championships and the Olympic hockey game between the USA and the USSR, among other olympic sites.
In March 1993 she covered World Cup events in Lillehammer, Norway alongside file crews from CBS to paint in advance of the Olympics there. She Designed stained glass windows for the Children's Chapel in Chicago, and her design in gold of the Olympic torch set with a diamond was chosen by the U.S. Olympic Committee for the pin to be presented to sponsors.
The national Fine Arts committee selected Cecile Johnson to produce the official lithographs for the Lake Placid Winter Olympics. Cecile Painted the murals for the Regatta Room at the Bermuda International Airport, First Federal Savings and Loan in St. Paul and for the Keystone resort Conference Center in Colorado.