Jay J. Johnson

Jay J. Johnson resides in America’s northeast and travels widely across the North American continent. His family ancestry includes close ties to the Maine woods and the Atlantic seacoast of Massachusetts where he grew up on a wave-bound peninsula. His knowledge of wildlife comes from traversing thousands of miles of American wilderness.

When he was just seventeen years of age he climbed all 48 of the highest peaks in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, becoming the youngest person to do so in one continuous trek. Since then he has walked and paddled through virtually every environment in America from mountain tops to river valleys to arid deserts.

He has sea-kayaked extensively along both the Pacific coast and the Atlantic coasts. He has also hiked both the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail, totaling 4700 miles. He has bicycled 3,000 miles across the southwestern deserts of the United States; and has driven many thousands of miles more along western back-country roads in search of his wildlife subjects. In the early 1980’s he completed a solo wilderness trek spanning sixteen months, covering 10,000 miles around America (featured in more than fifty newspapers nationwide).

American Artist Jay J. Johnson Painting
American Artist Jay J. Johnson Painting

At Cornell University he studied both Art and Natural History, gaining an in-depth scientific knowledge of his wild subjects while at the same time learning the fundamentals of Traditional and Modern Art. Working today in his studio, Johnson follows the time-honored tradition of painting with oils on fine linen, capturing the movement, spirit and realism of American wildlife. His paintings have become part of private collections nationwide through western galleries in Arizona, California, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Wyoming, and eastern galleries in Connecticut, Florida, Pennsylvania, Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Vermont.

View Jay J. Johnson Paintings