Today we’d like to introduce you to Douglas Johnson.
Hi Doug, could you start by introducing yourself, and how art came to be a major influence in your life?
I grew up moving around the world as an Air Force dependent and later as a career USAF cancer physician, researcher, nuclear consultant, and flight surgeon. Art impacted my life in a couple of ways from the early days of those travels. My parents bought a pastoral oil painting of sheep and shepherds during my childhood in Spain, and that painting traveled with us throughout our later assignments (I attended 11 schools in 12 grade-school years). That painting was a constant “root” as we hung it on new walls worldwide. I still have that painting today, over 60 years later, hanging in my home. Secondly, my father’s transfers often came at the beginning of summer. With time on my hands, until my new school started each fall, I spent hours drawing airplanes and spacecraft from memory and imagination. In college, it was cheaper to create my paintings to decorate my apartment walls than to buy store-bought artwork, thus my launch into the arenas of oil and acrylic painting. My subjects were usually landscapes depicting places I had grown up. Later, I painted scenes to commemorate enjoyable trips with my wife and children. In addition, the earlier aviation-related pencil sketches continued in new works created with oils.
Over 50 years later, I still enjoy documenting memorable scenes, travels, and historical moments on canvas, outdoors, and in my studio. Although largely self-taught, I have studied under Paul Ladnier, George Van Hook, Ken DeWaard, and Bill Farnsworth in recent years. Since starting to show my work a few years back, I have been honored to receive numerous awards in regional and international shows and have had my work published in several national magazines. I am honored also to have my artwork represented in private collections throughout the United States. Like most plein air painters, I try to capture the mood, action, or history of an outdoor scene, and I love to juxtapose the beauty of nature with manmade creations, be they architectural or mechanical.
Many people initially think it unusual to have seemingly disparate interests in painting, aviation, and medicine (I was a Radiation Oncologist and cancer researcher for 40 years). Upon reflection, however, all three of these areas have a major commonality: the need to convert a 3-dimensional world into a 2-dimensional image and have others then be able to use that 2-D image to reimagine a 3-D reality, whether one is thinking about a landscape scene, a complicated flight plan over unfamiliar terrain, or targeting cancer with radiation beams while avoiding nearby critical structures. I am a member of numerous art societies, including the Jacksonville Artist Guild, First Coast Plein Air Painters, Cultural Center of Ponte Vedra, Jacksonville Coalition for Visual Arts, St. Augustine Art Association, North Georgia Arts Association, Pines & Palms Art Association, Jacksonville Artists and Writers Guild, Oil Painters of America, American Society of Aviation Artists, Florida Artist Group, and American Impressionist Society.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Life changes have occasionally required a change-up in my painting endeavors. During frequent moves, for instance, my painting equipment needed to be compact in size and content to survive the travels: no fancy easels, myriad tubes of paint, or extensive art libraries. I began my art journey working with oils, but later, with young children at home, I ditched the oils in favor of the less harmful and toxic acrylic paints. However, I could build my studio once the kids were launched and return to oil painting. Oils are easier to work with during plein air painting and blend landscape skies and soft backgrounds. My main struggle today, however, is internal. The more I know about painting, the more I realize there is to learn. The bar gets ever higher. I suspect this is the same for all true artists. Indeed, I had to chuckle when I read recently that even the great Leonardo da Vinci wasn’t ever “finished” with his Mona Lisa–he was still working on it after several years at his deathbed.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I majored in Biology at Virginia Tech in the ’70s and received my MD from the Medical College of Virginia afterward. After an Internal Medicine Internship in San Antonio, TX, I completed my Radiation Oncology Residency at the Stanford University Medical Center in CA. While at Stanford, I met Drs. John Wells and Shyam Paryani would become a big part of my life. After Stanford, I spent several years in the United States Air Force as a clinician, flight surgeon, and researcher. Once finished with my active-duty years, I moved to Jacksonville to join with Drs. Wells, Paryani, and Scott. Adding another name to the group made it sound like a law firm, so in the mid-80s, we changed our name to the Florida Radiation Oncology Group. I continued my research endeavors, and we routinely registered more patients on national clinical trials than many of the regional academic centers combined. We were honored to deliver top-tier services to our community throughout central and northern Florida and southeastern Georgia.
Our FROG group later became the Radiation Oncology arm of the MD Anderson Jacksonville endeavor. I elected to pursue art more completely after 2014 when I moved my medical practice to part-time, and fully retired from medicine in 2019. I miss my patients (and still keep up with many of them and my former colleagues), but not the bureaucracy endemic to practicing medicine in the 21st Century! I am in my art studio 5 days a week, loving every minute! My new business is cleverly called DWJohnson Fine Art, LLC!
What’s next?
My plans are simple: to continue to expand my artistic scope and skill set and to see the world every day with new eyes.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.DWJohnsonFineArt.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DWJohnsonFineArt/
Image Credits
All photos by Douglas Johnson
