Saturday, April 16 at 2 p.m. — RUTLAND — For one day only, April 16, noon to 2 p.m. the Chaffee Downtown gallery welcomes international award winning artist Ray “Padre” Johnson as he showcases an array of his work, including his early Western art and his thirteen year project/adventure the “Faces of the Global Family.”
Johnson has worn many hats in his lifetime including artist, traveler, solider, construction worker, college athlete, medical technician, pastor, spokesperson, and cowboy. He only sketches and paints people from where he actually lives, creating personal connection with his subjects. This is evident in his “Face of War” sketch, based on a photograph.Johnson sketched himself and fellow servicemen as he provided combat medical care during one of the deadliest battles of the Vietnam War.
Johnson has lived as a working western cowboy while still finding time to capture the portraits of wildlife such as the elusive North American cougar in “Grace and Power,” and his cowman peers such as friend Charlie Blackman and horse in “Old Leather Denim and Dreams.”
It is the free-natured imagination that Padre values and relies on most in his art process. He aims to reveal his subjects’ spirits in his art. “It is this spirit sensing involvement with my subject matter which opens many of my viewers to sense and feel a deeper identification and a discovery of larger symbolic meaning behind the visual subject in my work of art.”
Share in the work and world experiences of Ray “Padre” Johnson, enjoy his insight into our human existence. View snapshots of our global, natural, and historical world.
For more info, visit chaffeeartcenter.org or call 802-775-0356, or email info@chaffeeartcenter.org.
