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THE BEAUTY OF ORDINARY THINGS Opening November 20 in the Museum Gallery is “The Beauty of Ordinary Things” showcasing Dorothy Churchill-Johnson’s oil paintings. There will be a reception for the artist on Saturday, November 27, from 3 to 5 pm. Churchill-Johnson’s works are done on spacious canvasses depicting natural objects — sticks, stones, foliage — but with a difference. Objects are isolated, exaggerated, set in an otherworldly landscape. As the artist explains, her paintings “evoke an alternative world, composed of imaginary elements and odd juxtapositions, and a sense of being an isolated consciousness in a beautiful, uninhabited universe.”
After receiving an art degree from the University of Massachusetts, Churchill-Johnson did graphic design for a subsidiary of Xerox. She pursued her fine art on weekends and nights. In 1976, she moved to Santa Barbara and established herself as an award-winning artist. Churchill-Johnson exhibits widely, primarily in the west, but also in Texas, Massachusetts, New York, and abroad. In 2006, she had a very successful exhibit in Ekaterinburg, Russia, the first Western artist to have done so. Her paintings were projected onto two huge digital screens on either side of town and received many accolades. The paintings of Churchill-Johnson can be found in many collections, including the Gallery of Modern Art, Yekaterinburg, Russia; Las Ventanas el Paraiso, Los Cabos, Mexico; Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, CA; and Santa Barbara County Arts Commission, among others. |
