Midge Johnson Artist Biography

Midge Johnson was raised in Newark, NJ and currently resides in Jackson, New Jersey and Osprey, Florida.  Raised by a single mother in an urban environment, she benefited from early exposure to a diverse cultural environment.  The political and socio-economic conditions experienced in childhood were the backdrop and catalyst for her development of resourcefulness, self-reliance and social awareness.  These life-skills fostered a successful business career and now carry her along the road to achieving her artistic goals.

After a 30-year career as CFO/ EVP of a major music publishing company, she currently devotes her time to honing her artistic skills.  She creates abstract expressionist mixed media painting.  

She is a self-taught artist continuously learning through classes, workshops, and on-line courses in both painting and art history.  She has studied composition with NYC Artist Gilda Pervin, life drawing with Simon Dinnerstein, watercolor with Clare Godleski and Jeff Cohn.  She has traveled within the US to attend immersive workshops with Janet Rogers, Jean Pedersen, Lian Quan Zhen, Ken Homesmer, Alexis Lavine, Rick Surrowicz, Nancy Hillis and Pamela Caughey.  She also enjoys art history classes offered by MOMA (NYC), particularly those relating to the post-war NY abstract expressionist movement.

Her work has been influenced by Helen Frankenthaler, Georgia O’keefe, Lee Krasner, Pat Passoff and  the post-war abstract expressionists, as well as contemporary artists with whom she continues to study, Clare Godleski and Pamela Caughey.  In 2020 she will have her first solo art show at The Monmouth County Art Alliance Gallery in Redbank, NJ.

Her paintings are displayed at her studio at Brushworks Gallery in Osprey, FL and in Jackson, NJ at her home studio.