J A Y   J O H A N S E N

              
            Tibetan Girl                                Dalai Lama                           Church Lady                   Tibetan Woman Praying
22" x  18" W/C                         28" x  20"-W/C                       28" x  20"-W/C                         24" x  19"-W/C
 

“Jay Johansen, 50, began painting full-time in 1989 after retiring from a business he founded in the 1970s. For the past several years the self-taught watercolorist has devoted his career to portrait painting, first photographing family and friends and rendering their images in warm siennas, ambers, violets, blue and yellow hues or bold, vibrant colors, on paper. Seeking uniquely expressive faces he’s taken to the streets of San Francisco and New York where he's photographed and painted scores of homeless men and women. Johansen passionately captures the drama and emotion of each model. These evocative paintings have won an impressive number of awards and continue to be exhibited in select venues throughout the country. He is currently working on a series of celebrity personalities and recently produced a video on watercolor portraiture. A Bay Area native, Johansen is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University. 

Internationally acclaimed portrait artist, Jay Johansen, displayed extraordinary artistic ability at an early age as he worked along side his father, a renowned sculptor.  Today Johansen paints in his studio in the San Francisco Bay Area, passionately devoting himself to creating emotionally evocative portraits in mixed media. Several prestigious art societies have honored him by granting him Signature Membership. Johansen’s art has been exhibited in museums throughout the United States. His dramatic paintings have been chosen for elite group and solo exhibitions and have garnered an impressive number of national awards, including Artdex International’s Gold Medal Award and the Best Portrait Award bestowed by the Society of Western Artists.  He is currently represented in galleries in Europe and the United States where he has experienced overwhelming positive public response. His dramatic images are available as mixed-media originals and as museum quality, limited edition Iris Giclées, signed and numbered by the artist. He has painted Hollywood stars, sports celebrities and national political leaders, as well as the homeless on the streets of San Francisco and New York City where he found, perhaps, his most uniquely expressive faces.

“For me, the essence of one’s life condition, the physical and spiritual, reveals itself in the face.” - Jay Johansen”

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