Items-Misc – Larry Johnston, Nostalgic Artist

The year was 2003 and the Number One Art Festival in the Country was the Coconut Grove Arts Festival in Miami, Florida. I had exhibited there once before. When I was accepted for this show, I was asked if I wanted to demonstrate my work at one of the schools in the Miami area.

I thought that would be fun, so I accepted, but was given a time frame to complete a full painting in the classroom. I chose a middle school in southwest Miami and had several phone discussions with the art teacher at the school.

Since I had a number of paintings with a diner theme, I decided to paint a related subject, that took less time to demonstrate. The Mustard and Ketchup painting was the first in a series of diner table-settings paintings. I was impressed by the students interest and the questions they asked during the class.

This was an experience that I will cherish as part of my artistic career.

Ferris Wheel Toy

Many of us remember the metal toys where the tabs fit into slots and bent over to hold them together. I was in an old hardware store/soda shop where the owner collected antique toys. He had them all over the walls, on shelves and even in the basement. It was a toy collector’s paradise. I decided to paint some paintings of the toys. The first toy that I chose was a familiar one to many of us, but to stay away from infringement problems, I changed all the characters on the Ferris Wheel to my own design of clowns.

While in Florida, one of my favorite places for painting was, Markham Park, in Weston, Florida. It was a beautiful day, as I pulled out my 30″ x 40″ canvas and started to paint. I set my easel in a shaded area beneath some palm trees. The sounds of the birds chirping made it so relaxing… that I didn’t have a care in the world. As I worked on the painting, it came together beautifully over the next few perfect days. I was almost finished with the painting, when I noticed the birds getting louder, then all of a sudden……”.SPLAT!”, right in the middle of the painting. You guessed it… Doo–Do everywhere! It took me about a month to make adjustments and corrections, but, to this day, if you look closely, (Only on the original painting), you can tell where that bird made his mark.. I’m not sure whether it was the clowns, or the Ferris Wheel he didn’t like.