Westshore artist Karen Johnston found a thriving worldwide arts community when she decided to take her art online. She speaks to Tania McCauley.
For nearly 20 years Westshore artist Karen Johnston has been a painter, and for a little over a year has opened her studio to the public, inpartnership with husband Bill, a potter.
Johnston always loved drawing and painting but had other commitments such as family to focus on for many years. Encouraged by a friend, she went to a class to learn how to use pastels, and from there started going to many workshops and classes run by Napier artist Brent Redding. For several years she has also run her own art classes, for children.
Johnston, who paints a variety of subjects in oils, from flowers to still lifes, animal portraits and her personal favourite, landscapes, particularly the Ahuriri estuary, recently joined a United States based website for artists who must produce a painting daily and put it online for auction. The dailypaintworks.com website was set up last year by a group of artists who originally sold their work on e-bay.
"I started doing these smaller paintings for practice, for a challenge, but now I have a great social network of artist friends," says Johnston. She would have been painting anyway, she says, but being able to share thoughts not only on her own but on eachothers' work, with other working artists, and discuss ways of making the web work for them as artists has been a great help.
Being in contact with people who are interested in buying her work, whether they come into the gallery or get in touch online, is also satisfying, she says. "I never liked not knowing where my work was going."
More info: Soleil Art Gallery and Studio, 79 Meeanee Quay, Westshore, www.karenjohnstonfineart.com, and www.dailypaintworks.com
