Johanna Harmon

Johanna Harmon has been a student of life since her childhood in Arizona. To express her feelings about what she saw back then, she started drawing at age 7. Observations and emotions continue to be at the core of her paintings. Not only does she document the world around her, she also expresses her personal response to the glory of creation, whether exemplified by a dancer's discipline and grace or by a child's indulgence in the colors and fragrances of a secret garden.

Bringing to life a multi-dimensional person on a two-dimensional canvas requires mastery of the formal aspects of art. Harmon's skills are both accurate and beautiful. Drawing has always been her passion, and for the past decade, she has succeeded in turning the power of color, light and shadow into effective tools that animate the stories on her canvas. Her sophisticated brushwork adds movement and energy to the surfaces of her paintings, especially the luscious, impastoed passages of oil pigments that contrast against thinner, more subtle applications.

As much as Harmon paints for the public, she also admits that for her, painting is a path of self- discovery. "To paint is to honor who I am, one brushstroke at a time," she says. Although she works very methodically, at some point, Harmon lets intuition reign. When that happens, she is at one with the canvas, which takes over, bringing the painter to the role of the observer once again.

In viewing Harmon's paintings, one senses the reverence and compassion that first drew Harmon to the person. Her paintings record unique and individual moments in life, those fleeting seconds that add up to the magnificent, complex symphony we call life.

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