Bringing Stone to Life

The Art of Brendan Johnston.

In the fine art world, you will be delighted to discover Brendan Johnston, a young artist with an old master approach. While many credit “talent,” Johnston emphasizes the importance of training. Johnston earned a rigorous, classical art education at the Grand Central Atelier (where he subsequently taught) which has an aesthetic sensibility motivated by works from Michelangelo to Sargent. The renaissance approach is to master drawing, painting and sculpture from real life. In a world where a duct-taped banana sells at auction for $6 million, this level of skill and mastery is especially appreciated. “All of this is learning,” says Johnston of his artistic prowess, “It educates your eye to see.” While his family has been in Southampton since the 1920s it was not a day at the beach but the Metropolitan Museum which captivated him early in life, and he is still a “museum junky.”

Johnston went on to study in Florence with his wife Katie Whipple who is also an accomplished artist. He learned how to sculpt stone, birthing human form from inanimate rock. The result is stunning in its realism, a result even more impressive given the use of ancient tools like chisels. “Completely hand-made stone carving is at death’s door with a couple of exceptions,” comments Johnston, “I found a teacher who studied in Sienna in a free program for those remaking sculptures inside cathedrals. There used to be thousands making hand-made stone carvings both copies and originals and now there’s 3D milling.” But just as a poem written by AI will never match Emily Dickinson, neither will machine-made match the human touch. Johnston comments, “I love as much of the artist’s hand that I can get. The more the artist’s hand is there, the more I get a sense of who the artist was and what they felt.”

Stone becomes not only a medium to carve but a canvas for painting for Johnston where he also inlays mosaics. He sources his stone everywhere from Italy to Oklahoma with a purveyor who grew up in Hampton Bays. “I look at huge panels of stone and say, ‘These are some of the most beautiful abstract paintings I have seen.’ It’s nature’s most beautiful creations.” Some of the natural lines in the stone may come from sediment in an ancient riverbed. “They are unpredictable,” says Johnston, “But that’s the fun of it, letting nature have a little bit of say over the outcome.”

One would think this artist who spends months and months on each work would be the embodiment of patience but Johnston admits with a laugh, “Not at all, just ask my wife.” Growing up he had difficulty with traditional learning and reading and it was only when he discovered first art history and art that he became laser focused. “I usually work in my studio each day from 9am to 6pm without taking breaks. But put me down with a book and I can barely make it through a page or two.”

Johnston has hit his aesthetic stride, and his work has been exhibited everywhere from the Salmagundi Club in New York to the National Portrait Gallery in London to the Galerie L’Oeil du Prince in Paris. Paton Miller and Christina Strassfield also tapped his work for the current East End Collected 8 exhibit at the Southampton Arts Center and he will be on a panel discussion April 5th.

Johnson sees a budding movement of young people wanting to learn the old school technique. Yet they still want to be part of a vibrant art market. “You can have a hard time finding a footing in the contemporary art world so working on stone has been a way in for me with an original take,” he says, noting the interior design world has caught up the huge taste for stone.

“Hand made objects may become even more valuable with more of the world being processed through a computer,” says Johnston, “It’s the difference of a poster of a Monet and an actual Monet. You feel this presence when you’re near the work — life laid bare on the surface.”