Carol Johansen

Carol Johansen Profile

Carol Johansen
210 North 500 West
Mount Pleasant, UT84647
(435) 851-3214
caroljohansen@gmail.com
caroljohansen.com

When Carol Johansen flew through the air off a bucking horse, she wasn’t planning to paint the western landscape. But somewhere between that ride and real life that’s exactly what she has done. Her free flowing style and a keen eye recreate the country she loves.

Carol, a Utah native, attended college with the goal to teach. With five children and one on the way, she began her teaching career in her 30’s; and after a year in the classroom, she became an art educator. The world of art opened a deep passion for creativity and renewed awareness of expression, something she always has sought.

A great-granddaughter to the Utah pioneers of 1847, Carol cherishes her heritage. Her grandmother often told stories of the westward movement into the Salt Lake Valley, igniting in Carol her passion for exploring the space and rhythm of her surroundings. Once she has captured the spirit of the place in the open space of the West, she gathers her color notes and references to use in the studio for creating larger paintings.

Unbounded Impressionism, is Carol’s oil painting style, meaning unhindered and having no limits. Using primary colors of red, yellow, blue and white, Carol is able to mix secondary and tertiary hues of harmonious blends on her palette before making her painting marks. Carol’s brushwork is bold and direct, laying down rich unrestrained thick strokes onto the canvas surface. She works alla prima, finishing a painting in one setting.

Carol forms a link to the viewer with the emotional content of her painting. The expressive color, the sweep of history in place, the awareness of all are products of how she lives. They make her journey of discovery about nature and herself a path of possibilities and commonalities that others discover they can share.