Visit Pumphouse Studio Gallery

Gibson Beach - 12x24 oil - Available

If you'd like to visit Michael's studio and see his inventory of paintings for purchase, you can now make an appointment for a personal visit.  E-mail Michael and he'll be happy to set up a time for you to see his world.

You can see his available paintings here:  http://www.michaelchesleyjohnson.com/html/sw_paintings.htm

Three Pieces for the Sedona Area Guild of Artists Exhibition

I will have three pieces in the upcoming SAGA show (Sedona Area Guild of Artists.)  The show runs from November 15 to December 5, with an opening reception on Saturday, November 16, from 5-8 pm:

Show Dates: Friday, November 15 to Thursday, December 5, 2013
At the Old Marketplace: 1370 West SR 89A in Sedona, Arizona

Show will be open Tuesday-Thursday from 12-5 pm and on Friday and Saturday from 12-8 pm. (Closed on Mondays and Thanksgiving Day.)

For full details on the exhibition, please visit http://www.sedonaareaguildofartists.com/event/saga-opening-reception-visions-of-fine-art-show/

These can be purchased through SAGA at the show, or you can contact me.  Hope to see you at the opening reception!

Moran Point - 12x24, oil/panel - $1500

Out of the Chasm - 12x24, oil/panel - $1500

Precipice - 16x20, oil/panel - SOLD

Taking Reservations for Paint Sedona Workshops

The workshop schedule is available at:  http://paintsedona.com/sched.html  If you have a particular subject you want to study such as: large format plein air painting, composition, design, color, Verde Valley explorations, plein air to studio, or whatever tickles your fancy, and you are the first to sign up for a particular week, the subject you choose can be the focus of the 4 day workshop.  It is not too early to think about Fall or Winter workshops!

Pumphouse Studio Gallery Paintings on Hiatus

Because of my travels, the paintings featured in the Pumphouse Studio Gallery blog will not be available again until November 1, 2013.  But, starting June 1, paintings of Downeast Maine and the Canadian Maritimes will be available in the Friar's Bay Studio Gallery blog.

October, Monjeau Peak - 12x16, pastel

"October, Monjeau Peak" 12x16, pastel #947
Shipped Framed (although unframed is an option!)
$1000 + shipping

About This Painting

(For the full story and more pictures, visit my blog post on this, "Monjeau Peak, Revisted.")


One of my favorite spots in all of southern New Mexico is Monjeau Peak, high in the White Mountain Wilderness near Ruidoso.   Access is by a twisty, windy dirt road that goes uphill steeply to a stone lookout tower built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.  The lookout is at 9500 feet, and from here you have sweeping views of aspen-dotted alpine meadows and 12,000-foot Sierra Blanca.  Many beautiful trails wander over the meadows and beyond.

I should perhaps use past tense in the above paragraph. In July 2012, the lightning-sparked Little Bear Fire burned over 44,000 acres and 254 buildings.  The lookout tower was burned, but the structure remains and will be rebuilt; I believe Monjeau Peak is still closed at this time.

We camped there one fall ten years ago, in a little aspen grove.  While hiking, I became enamoured of the rock boulders that were scattered around.  They made fascinating, beautiful compositions with the fall colors.  I felt compelled to paint them.

I did a studio piece in pastel, which at the time I was very proud of.  I had it framed - quite expensively.  Not long after that, in a workshop with Albert Handell, I had an opportunity to share a slide of the piece with Albert and the group at our critique night.  When the slide flashed up on the wall, Albert exclaimed, "Oy, those rocks!' and suggested that I spend a year painting rocks.  (Which I did.)

As I got better at the craft of painting, I became increasingly dissatisfied with this piece.  Even so, I've dragged the painting around from home to home over the years, and I've kept it hanging on the wall for students and visitors to see.  Why?  For the silly reason that it cost so much to frame.  I suppose I could have replaced the pastel with a newer one, but I had it in my mind that there was something fundamentally good about the piece, and that someday I would "fix it."

There were a number of problems with it.  For one, the mountain in the distance seemed to end abruptly behind a big fir tree; it should have continued on.  For another, the rocks were all evenly-lit, and there was no real focal point among them.  And of course, the rocks themselves, in all their pink-and-purple glory, needed to be pulled back from Cartoonland to reality.

This week, ten years later, I decided to deal with it.  I love pastel because the surface is always "open."  That is, you can go back to work on it at any time without having to treat it in any way.  (With oil, the surface becomes "closed" after a few days, and either have to "oil out" or use retouch varnish, neither of which is really very satisfactory.)  I unframed it, taped it to a board, found the very same photo I had used originally, and went to work.

I'm much happier with the piece now, and it will go back into its frame later today.

Here are some detail shots and the painting in its frame:

Dry Creek Snag 30x24 oil/canvas

Dry Creek Snag, 30x24 oil/canvas
$2500 unframed, shipping extra

About This Painting

I made a trip down to normally-dry Dry Creek after a big snowmelt to paint trees.  It's always a delight when water is running through Dry Creek, and with these beautiful junipers on the banks, I just couldn't resist setting up to paint.  I wrote a lengthy blog post on this painting as I worked in the field and then later in the studio.  Here are some detail shots:

Desert's Winter Splendor, 16x20 oil/panel

"Desert's Winter Splendor" 16x20, oil/panel, #932

$1500 - unframed, shipping not included

About This Painting

This painting is based on a plein air sketch I did one January morning.  I wanted to paint the view from the east of Courthouse Butte in Sedona.  There is a popular trail that goes past it, but I hiked about a mile in and then stepped off the trail.  Not many people saw me, painting in the brush.  When I got back to the studio, I decided the scene was exciting enough - beautiful color and interesting shadows - that I decided to make this larger version of it.