Continuing through July 17th, the Arts Depot is featuring the works of Bristol, Tennessee’s Elizabeth Johns in her exhibition “New Paintings”. Most all of these works are available for purchase.

Beth is a well-known Southwest Virginia artist who was born in Marion, Virginia and moved to Bristol, Tennessee with her family when she was five years old. She has been making art all her life and graduated from Emory & Henry College in Emory, Virginia in 1966 with a degree in sociology. While at Emory & Henry, she studied drawing and painting under the late George Chavatel and later completed graduate work in painting and design at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York. After living for nearly twenty years in Seattle, WA where her work was widely exhibited in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, Johns returned home to Bristol in 1994.

In the years since her return to the area, Johns' work has been exhibited in numerous solo shows and juried shows in the region. Her work has been shown at the New Light Gallery in Abingdon, Va., the Starving Artist Cafe, the Arts Depot, William King Regional Arts Center, the Blue Spiral Gallery in Asheville, N.C., Southwest Virginia Community College in Richlands, VA, Virginia Interment College, King College, the Bristol Art Guild, the Bristol Public Library, and many other venues. She has illustrated and provided the cover art for two children's books, The Sleeping Lady (1994) and Sunflower Sal (1997).

It is through her dream life, both sleeping and waking, that Elizabeth Johns taps into the images that she brings to life on canvas. Her work is primarily figurative with a strong narrative quality. When the images that may appear to her in dreams at night but more often in a quiet or meditative moment in the day are compelling enough, she attempts to capture them by setting them down on board or canvas. "The fascination for me," Johns explains, "is to pull images through from the unknown, to wonder about them, to sometimes understand their meanings later on, or sometimes not at all. Images communicate in a different way than words, sometimes bypassing the naming and knowing part of the brain". she continues, "As much as I love stories and literature, stories are not always told in words. And the source of stories is not always in what is known. Images and ideas can come through from the unknown, from the mystery, if we leave the window open and allow it."

After many years of working almost exclusively in oil on canvas, Johns' has begun making small pieces in acrylic on board. These small pieces are allowing her playfulness and the ability to pull images into being, one after another, before they can skitter away. Her paintings are figurative and narrative in nature. The imagery comes from her own life and the lives of those around her and shows the particular affinity she feels with these mountains in which she spent her growing-up years, and where she now makes her home again. The new work is done in acrylic on board and the exhibit will be made up of a series of 8 by 10 inch panels, shown as single pieces, or collected in groups. Most of the works in this exhibition, entitled "New Paintings" have been produced over the past three years. Johns' has enjoyed working in a smaller format and having a number of images in process at the same time. They speak to one another and grow themselves into a sort of dialogue. Some of the boards have been collected together to form larger pieces, while maintaining their integrity as separate images. Others are pieces of a puzzle, carefully fitted together to make a whole. One of the earliest pieces, the "Sun Down" series, began after watching a particularly stunning sunset out in her back garden and hearing the phrase "sun sinking down into the hills", something often said around here, and having images of the sun actually bouncing around down in the bowls and hollows of the hills. The most recent work is a series of figures placed inside various structures and interior spaces into which the viewer can peek. These are small stories that tell themselves to Johns in her long quiet hours in the studio. Johns says, "As has been true for me for more than thirty years, I find deep joy and connection to life in those hours and days in my studio, moving paint, stalking images".

The Depot Artists Association is a non-profit volunteer organization that operates the Arts Depot and is dedicated to promoting the arts in the community and features the region’s artists. The Arts Depot is located in the historic Depot Square area of downtown Abingdon, VA. The gallery and artists studios are open for your viewing pleasure Thursday thru Saturday, 11-3 pm, or by appointment. There is no admission charge. For further information, please contact the Arts Depot at (276) 628-9091, or e-mail at abingdonartsdepot@abingdon.com, or visit their web site at www.abingdonartsdepot.org.