Meredith Johnson To Host Standalone Exhibition

In the golden years of her life, a retired accounts administrator finds herself now holding the title of budding Bermuda artist, having caught the attention of an international art connoisseur.

Meredith Johnson, a pastels artist, is now heading into her first standalone exhibition on May 3, and says she is “jumping in with both feet.”

Ms. Johnson said, “Art was always something I intended to do someday. When I realized retirement was around the corner I decided to get to it. I signed up for classes with Sharon Wilson and then I was persuaded by a friend to do this show. So I am jumping in.”

Canada-based artist and art curator Joan Butterfield, a childhood friend of Meredith’s, sees promise in Ms. Johnson’s work and will travel to Bermuda to witness her friend’s first solo exhibition on May 3.

Mrs. Butterfield said, “I am amazed at Meredith’s ability to capture the beauty in mundane objects. She, in such a short period of time, has become skilled at using the sensuality of colour, infusing them onto her canvas, where endless nuances of abstract and representational images become comfortable in the same space.

“I’m so looking forward to travelling home to Bermuda, to support my friend in this, her first solo art exhibit.”

An example of Meredith Johnson’s work:

Mrs. Butterfield, who is Bermuda-born, says she’ll travel with Chantal Gibson, an artist and senior lecturer at Simon Fraser University.

The May 3 exhibit will take place outdoors in the garden of Ms. Johnson’s home near Mangrove Bay in Somerset. When the mother of one is not painting, she is often gardening. She is delighted to have her two passions collide in this way in a show she has titled ‘Art With a Diff’.”

Actually it’s a play on words,” Ms. Johnson said. ”Firstly, every artist’s work is different and secondly my relatives have called me ‘Diff’ all my life.  When I was little, somebody couldn’t say Meredith and I became ‘Diff’.

Ms. Johnson has made great strides very quickly, perfecting her artistic voice in pieces that depict buildings and everyday items around the house or in nature. She admits she didn’t dare imagine putting on a show quite like this just two-and-a-half years into retirement.

Art With a Diff will be open to the public on May 3, 2014, from 3.00pm until 6.00pm at 3 Mangrove Lane in Somerset, with a rain date set for May 10. Meredith Johnson’s art will be available for sale in recycled frames, an effort to make the pieces affordable for as wide an audience as possible.”

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