November Show 
16 Patton
November 1-15, 2008

Reception
Saturday, 11/1 6p-8p
16 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801
828-236-2889

Events
Plein Air Demo
Galleries
About Plein Air 
Membership
Links
Home
E-Mail
Workshop Listings

Member News 

Press Room

International Artist Magazine Features PAP-SE Member Armand Cabrera Read

L. Diane Johnson  - Cary, NC

Artist Website             E Mail Artist        919.460.0630

L. Diane Johnson

Born as a “Jersey Girl” in 1951, with roots in Mississippi and Georgia, Johnson has since lived in locations 
from New England to North Carolina. She has spent a lifetime creating and painting. Upon graduation from 
The Ohio State University as a painter and teacher in 1973, she says, “I came out neither as a teacher 
nor a painter as non-objective work was in vogue and revered above all else.” Therefore, post college, 
she was compelled to learn how to “really paint”. She found instruction with several master representational 
painters, emerging as a sought-after portraitist, later turning to the landscape as her permanent venue in 
soft pastel, oil and acrylic.

Johnson worked as an independent graphic designer for over 30 years for Fortune 500 companies, while 
building her painting career. During that time, she stayed “under the radar”, only to surface as a painter and 
instructor to hundreds of collectors and artists around the globe.

Her greatest passion is painting on location, live, in front of her subject - whether architecture, people, water 
or gardens – no longer to offer a literal rendering, rather, her intimate interpretive perspective about whatever 
she paints. “My objective is to paint reality but through the lens of what I want to convey to the viewer.” Further 
adding, “Today’s paintings are tomorrow’s heritage. We highly regard many painters who went before us. 
Sometimes we forget that what we create now (whether artists become “known” or not) is what collectors 
and the public will view from our time in history that matters to me.”

As a contribution to her objective, Johnson became the Founding Editor of Plein Air Magazine 
(now titled, Fine Art Connoisseur ) to promote and perpetuate the past and current heritage of plein-air painters. 
Although the magazine has since become dedicated to general fine art collecting, she is now painting once
 again en plein air, much of the time alla-prima (all in one session.)

Johnson’s travels have taken her far and wide to explore the challenge of painting the landscape wherever 
she is; and teach others how to do the same, yet in their own way.

Professional Affiliations:
Pastel Society of America
Plein Air Painters of Hawaii
Plein Air Painters of the Southeast
International Society of Acrylic Painters
National Society of Acrylic Painters, U.K.
National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society
International Plein Air Painters
Plein Air Florida, Invitational Member

Selected Corporate Collections 

Artists Statement 

Selected Reviews, Conferences & Symposia 

Jul/Aug 2005: International Artist Magazine: as Signature Member of Plein Air Painters of Hawaii
Sept/Oct 2001: The Pastel Journal: “Impressionist Techniques and the Modern Landscape”
Sept/Oct 1991: Virginia Southwest Magazine: Arts in Review “L. Diane Johnson”
June 1991: Ewing Messenger: “Ewingville Native Paints Portrait of Success”
Sept 1990: Roanoker Magazine: “10 Best Investments for Art”

2005: International Association of Pastel Societies
Raleigh, NC Seminar; speaker and critiques

2000: Invitee, White House Conference on Culture and Diplomacy
The White House, Washington, D.C.

2007: Pastelagram: “State of the Internet”.
2003: Book Co-Author: Promotion for Pennies
1987: Book Illustrator: If I Had Long, Long Hair

Artist Website     E Mail Artist     Master Gallery List