Nubian

People who saw me working on this painting seemed to enjoy the story about the goat in the painting. When my wife and I were honeymooning in the mountains of North Carolina, we went to Carl Sandburg's estate in Flat Rock, North Carolina. While we toured the farm area and were looking at some baby goats, an older Nubian goat came up behind us. Cindy felt a tug at her pocketbook and found that the goat had eaten a hole in it while we had stood there. I thought it was funny and took some photos of the goat. Recently I was looking through some old photos and found the photo. My wife is a florist so in the painting I have the goat eating flowers in the yard. I collect old bottles and have all the bottles in the painting. I also love the spring colors in the fields when the fields turn red, yellow, and purple as I painted them in my painting. I hope people will get as much enjoyment out of looking at this painting as I got out of doing it.

Richard A. Johnson was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island on May 28, 1949. Five years later, his parents moved to Florence, SC. Richard’s father, Harry R. Johnson, worked for Wentworth Manufacturing in Lake City. Richard grew up in Florence and after high school went to Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida. After graduating in 1972, Richard moved to Atlanta, Georgia where he worked in advertising for several years. In 1979, he started working full time as a fine artist doing shows and showing in galleries from New Jersey to Florida. He paints realistic landscapes and his Trompe L’oeil windows that he is known for. He started doing his windows because he was torn between painting landscapes and still lifes and didn’t know which way to go.  The windows solved the problem and after 30 years he is still having fun doing them. His windows have sold to people all over the world and have won many awards at shows throughout the East.

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