‘In Provence’ takes viewers on vibrant journey around France

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Susan Johnson first fell in love with France in the 1960s. She traveled there a lot — three times a month, in fact — for her work.

“I was a Pan Am stewardess in the ’60s,” the plein air artist said. “I got to spend a lot of time in France.”

A couple decades later, Johnson first conceived of painting the beautiful everyday scenes she saw in the French countryside.

Staying in a farmhouse next to a lavender field, “I was so taken with the beauty of the place, and I saw plein air painting going on at that time, and I thought, ‘Someday I’d like to do that,’” she said.

She’s done it. Johnson’s latest exhibit, “In Provence,” is on display at downtown’s Benicia Plein Air Gallery. She is the gallery’s featured artist for July.

After seven years as a stewardess, Johnson worked as a paralegal, then had her own color and makeup businesses. In the early 1990s, when her husband was in seminary school in the midst of his own mid-life career change, Johnson returned to France for a couple years and got her master’s degree in French literature at Université Nouvelle Sorbonne. She later taught — English in France, and French in the U.S.

Johnson’s paintings for “In Provence” came out of a trip last fall to the town of Bonnieux, in the Luberon region. It’s one of the “perched” villages — ancient towns sitting high in the mountains.

“My husband and I stayed in a 13th-century house. I painted every day,” she said.

“Every morning I did a painting and often in the afternoon (too). It was because it was autumn, there were the fall colors, there was still a bit of lavender out there, and also a bit of grapes still in the vineyard. It was turning yellow and gold. That is captured in some of the paintings.”

From there the couple went to Cassis, a fishing port on the Mediterranean. “It is small, it’s exquisite. I did several paintings there. Took hundreds of photographs. Sometimes I will work from a photograph, but most of the time it’s on the scene — I find that more dynamic,” she said.

Benicia almost didn’t get to see Johnson’s latest work. Because she likes to use a lot of paint, getting the paintings home from France proved to be a challenge.

“The paintings didn’t dry!” she said. “I got a new kind of oil paint … and I thought they would dry. But they didn’t.”

But there was a simple solution. She put push pins in the four corners of each canvas and stacked them, then put a dry cleaning bag around them. “I got through Customs with them, with those little pieces of metal and the smell of oil paints. They took away my lavender honey, but they let me through with the paintings, thank heavens.”

But while her latest exhibit features French tableaux, Johnson loves painting in Benicia. “The water changes constantly. I bet I’ve seen 25 different colors of water down there. The other day it was in layers, stripes of pink and yellow ocher, and pale green, and pale turquoise, and dark blue. I went home and grabbed my paints and came down.

“I think Benicia is the ideal place for a painter because of the variety of terrain and subject matter that we have so close by.

“I like the spontaneity of the plein air painter. I don’t really have a studio, I just paint out-of-doors, on the scene. I’m often around town, painting what I see,” she said. “I guess the closest to a studio is my front porch. I’m still outside.

“My painting is spontaneous. Color is the thing I love the best. Color and texture.”

If You Go
Susan Johnson’s “In Provence” will be featured at the Benicia Plein Air Gallery, 307 First St., through July 31. An artist’s reception is Saturday from 5-7 p.m.