James Scott Johnson

James Scott Johnson is a Suffolk-based painter and printmaker. Having studied art and graphics at college, James found what truly sparks a passion for painting only in recent years. The work draws on landscape, the outdoors, Impressionism and Expressionism. Acrylic is the preferred medium at present, alongside mixed media, linocut and woodcut.

A long-running project, Life on the Outside, records a journey into the world of forestry that began with an apprenticeship in the Chiltern Hills at the end of 2020. It started as photographs taken to record progress for the apprenticeship portfolio. Those photographs showed real potential as painting material, occasionally catching forestry workers in the moment, a sight few people come across. The forestry paintings were exhibited at The Gibberd Garden in Harlow, alongside paintings made since 2019 in locations around the UK.

A few years before moving to the Chilterns, James lived and worked seasonally with the YHA, walked the country and spent a great deal of time outside, which remains the main source of inspiration. More recent paintings turn to the town and the city, from London's railway stations to the streets and underpasses of Harlow.