THE BATTALION
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1979
Page 3
Art preserves ties of former vet, animals
By CHERYL CESSNA Li-s, ground gypsum which will support I think everybody needs goals.
Battalion ReDorter f the oil. I do some watercolor — Right now I m working toward ad-
By CHERYL CESSNA
Battalion Reporter
. He put down his scalpel to pick
iTjS ip a paintbrush, but he’s still work-
^ ng with animals.
Bryan artist James Harvey
ohnson, 34, graduated from Texas
itnporta]i|V&M University in 1969, but
J sponsor witched f rom practicing veterinary
nt partjejnedicine to painting in 1972.
Ipfd been in practice three years
idently, n d I accepted a position at the
ective p^Jnited States Department of Agric-
s > andtlieUhire — a research position. About
1 to letjLHt time, which was in ’71 or ’72, I
•at advanT arte ^ drawing again, ’ Johnson
3 valid ( a id.
noting S As 1 matured as an artist and
•> did passfjl^ 6 business grew, I came to a
•cans pn ,0 * llt wh er e I really wanted to see
and at |(h would do. I was ready for a
;ived oveB n ^ e; ^ didn’t particularly want to
greeinj, dvance any further in research be-
limited ■ lse ^ ^ have to continue my edu-
‘stitution,^ l0n ’”. he Said '
sl ow (i^’B “So it was either go back in
st-g n ,i! iractice or become an artist. I didn’t
ca ]]y ev jnt to go back in debt again with
oot'affecit P rac d ce . so I chose this because
is a likelil§l rea dy established and
rganiz«d® ng we ^- ^ n d if I Lad never done
cans.
solve (lie
1 by the
r future
*i' not, the
fustrated?
any
then I always would have won-
ed whether I could or not. ’
rom the looks of things, Johnson
sn’t have to wonder anymore.
I’d say an average painting
uld sell for $750 to $1,200. Of
Purse I’ve done smaller and I’ve
y i . . Ine larger. I sold more in the ear-
' *6’ years than I do now because I
fts doing smaller things. But this
'e ir, of the major paintings. I’ve
rad maybe 15, and another 15 or 20
■the smaller ones,” he said.
■His wife and business manager,
Icicille, said Johnson is working on a
■owing to be held Nov. 17 at the
■aner Gallery in Huntsville. She
■d the gallery is introducing a lim-
ted edition of 490 signed prints,
■lich will sell for $100 each.
I “We’ve been planning it for
P^ut a year,” she said, “so it’s going
I e a major show. He’s probably
| tg to have about 20 original
I es for sale there.
“A lot of Jim’s work over the
few years has been commis-
| ed paintings. The people at the
| 'ay invited him to do the show
I jtt a year ago, so he’s been work-
in things that were not commis-
id to use in the show. It’s hard
I it ready for a major showing like
when you’re doing commis-
^ i. You really have to plan ahead
I u’re a commission-painting ar-
x
| w hnson’s living room is a private
iry of sorts; it’s filled with his
tings, and also the occasional
Iments of several parrots —
n’t be mean,” “I pretty bird
“What ya doin’?”
ihnson said caged birds are his
nary interest as a veterinarian,
i do some consulting work, and I
p my hand in on the clinical as-
ts of caged birds. I have several
hem as pets. I got interested in it
:ause I had one bird who died
mt a year ago. I replaced it, and
i people I got it from started ask-
J me questions about caged birds
it I couldn’t answer,” he said.
“So I did a lot of reading and
ked to a lot of other veterinarians
d developed somewhat of an ex-
rtise. And I still do some relief
jk — if a vet goes on vacation. I’ll
e on his clients while he’s gone. ’
Johnson not only has birds as pets
.t he also hunts them, and is
qudi chairman of the local chapter of
ct. If eve'Ducks Unlimited,
ctive m® It’s a non—profit conservation
(get soinf or g an i za tion, and there’s no gov
ernment money in it. Money has
nine monbeen donated to it by duck hunters
come updo purchase and lease wetlands in
ilittlesteffbe United States, Canada and
Mexico for the nesting grounds of
s Brothel^terfowl. Non-game species bene
fit from it, too.”
He said he sees no conflict be
tween his profession and hunting.
“The types of animals I hunt are
only available because of hunters, ”
James Harvey Johnson, a 1969 Texas A&M University
graduate, displays one of his new painting which will be
shown Nov. 17 in Huntsville.
said Johnson, “I’m a conservationist
in that I know that the funds that are
generated from hunting have al
lowed the types of animals that I
hunt to still exist. This is because of
the amount of money needed for
propagation and for Ducks Unlim
ited to buy wetlands.
“As a result there is a huntable
population of ducks; otherwise,
there wouldn’t be any at all. I feel
real good about it. It’s conservation
rather than preservation. Conserva
tion’s just the use of a renewable re
source, and I feel very strongly
about that,” Johnson said.
“I probably would not have had
the inspiration to be an artist if
it had not been for my experiences
as a youngster hunting and getting
to know bird dogs,” he said.
Johnson calls on his early experi
ences as a hunter in West Texas as
an inspiration for his paintings.
“I’ve painted a lot of different
thinqs, but now I concentrate on the
subjects I feel I know the best. Most
of those are dogs, mostly sporting
dogs — pointers, setters, retrievers
— and selected wildlife. ”
Battalion photo by Lynn Blanco
“I don’t really call myself a wild
life artist, although I do a lot of
that type of thing. But those are my
favorite subjects, the ones that I
really prefer to do. I think any good
artist, if he really researches what
he’s doing and gets a grasp on it, can
do almost anything. But all of them
have favorites, because that’s the
thing they know the best. And it will
show in their work, too,” he said.
Johnson said he occasionally
paints from photographs, even
though there is a controversy among
painters about their use.
“Generally, when I do that. I’ll
take my own because I can’t depend
on anyone else’s photographs. The
artist is still behind the camera; he’s
still thinking as an artist, rather than
as a photographer. The kind of in
formation I need from that photo
graph is different from what the
photographer is trying to portray in
a photogragh standing on its own.”
Johnson says he uses chiefly oil.
“I paint on Masonite, which is a
trade name for a sort of pressed
wood. Its surface is treated with a
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ground gypsum which will support
the oil. I do some watercolor —
mostly opaque watercolor. I have
done some sculpture, but I’m not
currently doing that.”
In spite of his success, Johnson
said he has never had art lesson.
“I’m entirely self-taught. I’ve al
ways liked to work with my hands.
As a child, I built model airplanes,
and I always used my hands to
create things,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the commission he
would most like to receive would be
to paint Secretariat. “I painted his
daughter, Terlingua, and I’d like to
paint him. I was commissioned by a
man in Midland whose son co
owned the daughter of Secretariat.
“She had the most potential of
any of Secretariat’s progeny, and
she won several hundred thousand
dollars. She was a 2-year-old at the
time I was commissioned, in Oc
tober 1978, and there was a chance
that if she did well, she could run in
the Kentucky Derby as a 3-year-old.
But she missed it by one race. It
would have been nice because it
would have been the first time in 20
years a filly has run against colts in
the Kentucky Derby.”
Johnson said horses are hard as
signments.
“Horses are very beautiful, but
they re veiy difficult to paint be
cause of the color and conformation,
especially in a case like that of Ter
lingua. If I were just paintinq a
horse I could make it like I wanted
it. But when it’s somebody’s horse,
and especially a horse like that, it
has to be exact,” he said.
Johnson said he is still trying to
perfect his craft.
T think everybody needs goals.
Right now I’m working toward ad
mission to the Society of Animal Ar
tists. It’s strictly by invitation, al
though you submit work to a jury of
the members. It doesn’t make me a
better artist, but I think the people
who have bought my work deserve
that because it will enhance the
value of my work.
“The main thing beyond that is
that every painting be better than
the last one. Painting, or that type of
creative work, takes a lot of matur
ity. I ve found that you get better as
you get older, because you see
things differently. Art is a difficult
area, and you just don’t get good
overnight — it takes years.”
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