Barton County Community College’s Shafer Gallery will exhibit the colorful landscapes and floral paintings of Ellinwood artist Carolyn Isern Johnson beginning Sunday, July 8, with a reception from 1 to 4 p.m. The exhibit will continue through Aug. 19.

As a college student entering the University of Kansas several decades ago, Ellinwood native Carolyn Isern intended to become an architect, but when she enrolled in drawing and painting classes as part of her studies, she found a new interest.
“The professors made me decide to stay in art,” Carloyn Isern Johnson recalls, almost 60 years later. “I guess they thought I had potential and they talked me into it.”

One of her instructors at KU was the well known Kansas landscape painter, Robert Sudlow. “I’ve always admired him, but in the way we paint, we are opposites,” she said. He paints in subdued colors, she explained, “and I just let it loose.”

Influenced by several masters of the art, Johnson continued to paint until she reached her own individual style. “First it was more like Rembrandt,” she said with a smile. “Later it was like Cézanne, and then Van Gogh. Then, all of a sudden I was just doing my own thing.” But, she added, she still looks at Van Gogh’s paintings and gets inspired.

She said her style “changed a lot” as it evolved, and she has continued painting during most of the years since her time at KU. She returned to Ellinwood and spent some years away from painting while her sons were young, but once they were grown she took up her art again.

At that time, she encountered Ray Bachura, Barton art instructor from 1969-1977, who encouraged her to come out to the college to paint. “I started painting up here (at the college) a little bit,” she said. “Sometimes I’d run out in the field and paint and bring it back so he could critique it. It took him a long time to start talking, but once you got him started, he was great. He kept me more encouraged as time went by.”

Earlier in her career as an artist, Johnson thought she had to be in the field to paint. “But in this Kansas wind, I struggled,” she said. “Sometimes I had paint all over the ground, and the canvas would fly away.” Finally, she started taking photographs and making sketches that she would bring home for her painting, and that method worked for her.

Johnson started out painting in oils, but when acrylics became available, she started using them almost exclusively. “I paint fast, so once I found acrylics, they were right down my alley,” she said. Once in a while, she said, she uses oils on top of the acrylic, just because that is the color she’s looking for and she can only find it in oil.

She paints landscapes and florals most often. “Landscapes are my favorite, but I tend to go with flowers because I love color,” she said. “I have several friends who grow beautiful flowers and I’ll go into their yards to paint them.

“Otherwise, I see more color in the landscape in Kansas than any other place. You think of God’s palette. I see a lot more color than most people do in landscape.”

Johnson said three elements determine her style, “composition, Carolyn and color.” Sometimes she adds a fourth one for her faith. “Sometimes I like to put Christ in there, too, because he’s the one who’s helped me along.”

That is the reason she has one religious piece in her gallery show. “I want people to know that my faith really brought me around to this.”

Over the years, Johnson has exhibited her work in Arizona, Colorado and many cities in Kansas, but now the Shafer Gallery is the only place she chooses to show her work, not only because it is nearby, but also because “it’s the most wonderful place to exhibit,” she said. “This gallery I love, so I’m willing to do it.” Several years ago, she showed her work in the Shafer Gallery, at the same time the works of Elizabeth Layton, noted Kansas artist, were exhibited.

A lifelong resident of Ellinwood, Johnson has taken leadership roles in the community. She is a past president of the Ellinwood School Board and also served as president of Ellinwood Area Enterprises Garden Club and Grove Park Ladies Golf Association. She also designed the wheat banners that now decorate Ellinwood’s streets.

Johnson will attend the opening reception for her Shafer Gallery show on Sunday and will be available to answer questions.
All Shafer Gallery exhibits are presented in part by the Kansas Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday; 1-4 p.m. Sunday; closed on Saturday. Guided tours are available by appointment.

More information about the Shafer Gallery and its exhibits can be obtained by calling the gallery, 620-792-9342, or by going to the gallery’s Web site, www.bartonccc.edu/gallery.

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