'The head the hand and the heart, I can only paint what’s in my heart it gives me overwhelming peace.'
Recently I spent a pleasant afternoon visiting Annette Johnson’s studio in Blackheath which was part of the 2026 Greenwich Open Studios Trail. Annette started painting whilst living in Boston, America and has since studied at the Sir John Cass College of Art. She has also studied etching at Morley College.
Annettes work invites you to spend a little time looking. Whether working as a painter or printmaker, she has an obvious interest in observation, but the results are more than simply records of what she sees. There is a strong sense of the artist selecting, simplifying and interpreting the world around her. Her experience as a printmaker seems particularly important. Etching encourages you to think about line, texture, tone and the balance between light and dark, and these qualities carry naturally into painting. There is often a feeling of structure beneath the surface an awareness of how an image has been put together rather than simply copied.
What makes the work approachable is that you don’t need to know anything about technique to enjoy it. You can respond first to colour, atmosphere, subject or composition and then gradually notice the smaller decisions, a particular line, an unexpected texture or the way one area of colour sits against another.
Annette has spent many years painting and printmaking, but the work does not feel like an exercise in demonstrating technique. Instead, technique is there to serve the image. Perhaps that is the pleasure of looking at her work. It encourages you to slow down, notice things and consider how an artist can take something observed in the everyday world and quietly turn it into something distinctly her own. Annette is a member of the Society of Women Artists.
Website: www.annettejohnson.co.uk
Instagram: @annetteJohnson43
Annette has exhibited three times at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
She has held solo exhibitions at:
• The Royal Society of Marine Artists
• National Society of Painters, Sculptors &
Printmakers
• Royal Academy (1985, 2007, 2008)
• Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour
• Society of Women Artists
• Concourse Gallery, Barbican
• Society of Botanical Artists
• The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester (3)
• St Owens Manor, Jersey
• The Courtyard Gallery
• The Vault Gallery, Antibes, South of France
• Fairfield Halls, Croydon (3)
• The Headcorn Gallery, Rye
• The London Lighthouse
• Greenwich Open Studios
Images below - Annettes Studio including Petal the studio helper
