W. K. Johnson Recent Work

Before The Moon Went Down, Acrylic on Canvas 36" x 48"

This painting, part of a landscape series, captures the essence of a small town. It includes houses, trees, streets, and the moon, weaving together a vivid portrayal of the town's daily life. Viewers are invited to immerse themselves in the community, experiencing its entirety in one glance. Reflecting the sentiment expressed in John Prine's lyrics from "In A Town This Size," the painting conveys the idea that in a close-knit town, there is no escaping the scrutiny of neighbors. The lyrics, "I had a fight with my girlfriend last night. Before the moon went down it was all over town," poignantly depict the interconnectedness and gossip filled atmosphere that may be characteristic of life in a town of this size.

PICASSO'S PICASSOS

According to Huffington’s book “Picasso Creator Destroyer”

upon his death Picasso had in a personal collection of his works 1,880 Paintings, 1,228 Sculptures, 18,095 Engravings, 6,112 Linocuts, 11,748 Drawings and 149 Notebooks.  In 1977 this collection was valued at 260 Million dollars. In 2024 dollars that value is 1.33 Billion dollars.  The average price of each of the nearly 50,000 works in 1977 was only $5,200.  In 2024 dollars the average is $26,000 each. Huffington did not quote a source for the figures represented in her book and they do differ from David Douglas Duncan’s book “Picasso’s Picassos” but if they are accurate the estate collection was greatly undervalued in 1977. Since then just one of Picasso’s paintings (not from his personal collection) sold for more than 139 million dollars. If the1,880 paintings from his personal collection were valued at just 1 Million dollars each they would be worth $1,880,000,000 today.

Femme a la Montre 1932 $139.4 million dollars

W. K. Johnson New Work

"Inclined To Go Up On The Wall , Acrylic on Canvas 36" x 48"

As I was working on this painting and using the same color in different parts of the painting and that color looked different depending which colors surround it.  I was reminded of Joseph Albers Book “Interaction Of Color”.  In the introduction he writes “First, it should be learned that one and the same color evokes innumerable readings.  Instead of mechanically applying or merely implying laws and rules of color harmony, distinct color effects are produced -through recognition of the interaction of color- by making, for instance, by making very different colors look alike or very nearly alike.”  I might add that one can also make the same color look like a different color when it is placed next to a color or colors that cause this illusion see and example in figure 1 below, a plate from Alber’s book.

Fig. 1 from "Interaction Of Color" the Xs are the same color

The title of this new painting "Inclined To Go Up OnThe Wall", comes from a song lyric. I was recently invited to exhibit in the CMC Gallery in Charlotte, N. C. and I was thinking that it takes a certain amount of courage to put my work out there, to put it up on the wall for thousands of people to see and to critique. This made me think of Mark Knopfler’s song “All The Road Running” and these lyrics,

“Well if you're inclined to go up on the wall

It can only be fast and high

And those who don't like the danger

Soon find something different to try.”