Steven Johnson

Steven was born and raised on the Central Coast of California. Throughout his life he’s been blessed to be surrounded by the beauty of the ocean, local ranch lands and rolling hills. The beauty that enveloped him led to a desire to depict his impressions visually. Blessed with the ability to render the beauty of God’s creation, his work compels the viewer to truly see God’s hand in creation.

To become the artist he is today, Steven followed a path of experiences. As a child he spent hours entertained by comic books of the early 1960’s. His love of the artistic styles he saw led him to begin drawing his own works with super heroes of his own invention. As he grew into his teens, he graduated to the style of the cover illustrators populating the world of fantasy and science fiction paperbacks of the late 60’s and 70’s. The work of Frank Frazetta and others inspired him to graduate to the more sophisticated look of the illustrators of the early 20th Century, including N.C. Wythe, Dean Cornwell, Howard Pyle, and J.C.Leyendecker.

Steven further advanced his artistic skills in college, learning from experienced technical illustrators in the San Diego area, who taught him the old school method, with every line drawn by hand. With this foundation, Steven embarked on a career as a self-employed Illustrator. His early successes included commercial projects published in Better Homes & Gardens magazine, Country Homes magazine, and San Luis magazine. Although his commercial work was important at the time, Steven has now turned his artistic efforts to depicting subject matter which can be appreciated best as fine art.

Currently, the artist finds his subject matter stemming from his life experiences, and especially a focus on his own spiritual growth. Although Steven’s subject matter varies, the themes he finds himself returning to time and time again have their roots in the Bible. His artistic style can be best described as Victorian with an Illustrator’s touch. Some of his work reflects influences of the Victorian artists of the late 1800‘s including Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Sir Frederick Leighton, Alphonse Mucha, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, William Bouguereau and other Pre-Raphelites.