Words by Marc Haefele, Senior Arts Writer, Bermudez Projects
Johnny Taylor’s paintings reiterate a lifetime of travel and study, meditation and movement. There is a Japanese aesthetic, a classical Chinese modality, and an overlay of pure nature, such as suffuses both Japan and his home base in Vancouver, British Columbia.
His latest body of work also shows a graphic quality, born of Taylor’s recent discovery of Japanese block prints – particularly those of the tormented 19th century Tenpo period – with their “measured use of vivid color.”
According to Taylor, his “works are inviting of a quiet contemplation. Each one of them has a forefront of branches, leaves or organic scraggle that once is settled on needs to be navigated and peered through to embrace the entire view.”
But if his works invite intense contemplation, they are generally born out of its opposite.
While other traveling artists take notes via sketches and photographs, Taylor’s method incorporates a form of personal athleticism throughout his perceived environment. He captures mental images literally on the run, scurrying through venues via the sport of parcours, a century-old discipline of martial running, climbing, and leaping. He feels that an artist must immerse himself in the subject of his painting.
“I feel the works seem like a place that is appearing, or is discovered, by surprise, that the viewer has become a voyeur, hidden in the thickets of the outskirts as they approach a nearby utopia,” states Taylor.
While nature is newly prevalent in Taylor’s recent painting, much urbanity remains from his earlier work of the past five years, presenting as it does intricate architectonic detail suggesting a sense of both order and menace by evoking something close to a kind of Bauhaus Piranesi, along with a stronger, almost photographic, depth of field.
“I am creating a stronger distinction between foreground and background, using recognizable organic features in front of implied architectural habitats that place the viewer in a singular distinct place, a nod toward Impressionist compositions in the paintings’ structure that varies from my earlier open ended, non-objective abstraction,” Taylor adds.
The artist refers to these new works as neo-modern Impressionism, influenced by a multicolored palette derived from various sources, including buildings, architecture, graphics, fashion, and design, all trending towards a mixing of moody tints and pastels, “offset with intense saturated colors from the secondary and tertiary groups.”
“My constant themes are still present: Architecture and Nature styled after Japanese woodblock prints and Chinese landscape, with a more impressionist approach to composition and pallet – using color to convey mood and what the environment feels like, instead of a literal interpretation of color,” states Taylor. “Subjects are tending to be residual Tokyo memories, revisiting experiences and environments through photographs of my journeys, blended with the immediate nature of my studio in [British Columbia] with an emphasis on color study as the initial impetus.”
All images courtesy of the artist and Bermudez Projects, Los Angeles. © 2018. All rights reserved.
