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Right: A work by acclaimed portraitist Johanna Spinks, the Demonstration Artist of the Month at Sunday’s Santa Paula Society of the Arts meeting to be held at the historic Depot Gallery.
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SP Society of the Arts: Acclaimed portraitist is April Demonstration Artist
April 11, 2014
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
An acclaimed artist whose 58 portraits of residents are now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Ventura County will be showing her portrait techniques when the Santa Paula Society of the Arts meets April 13.
Johanna Spinks is the Demonstration Artist at the meeting to be held in the SPSA Depot Gallery, located at 963 E. Santa Barbara St. (at the corner of 10th).
The free meeting is open to the public and visitors will have a chance to win a work of art!
Any person familiar with the work of Spinks will tell you the British born artist is as much a storyteller as she is a classically trained portrait artist. Whether she is bringing the vibrancy of a local community to life through her Face of Ventura and Face of Malibu portrait projects or expertly rendering a model in an imagined Parisian interior, Johanna’s work possesses a whimsical romantic quality that is the signature attribute of her award-winning style.
The artist’s life story serves as a good explanation for this: as a 22-year-old journalist Spinks emigrated from the United Kingdom to New York. She later became a top Hollywood makeup artist, using her brushes to bring magazine pages, as well as TV and film, to life.
When she decided to put down the powder brushes to pursue oil portraiture full time, it wasn’t long before she was receiving international acclaim and was featured in publications including The New York Times, American Artist Magazine and Art Talk.
Spinks won The Daler Rowney Award for Painting Excellence at Oil Painters of America National Show in 2008.
More recently, 58 of Spinks’ portraits, all painted from life were accepted into the permanent collection of The Museum of Ventura County in California, an honor she holds most dear.
Primarily a portrait artist, Spinks is also an avid landscape and still life painter. Her mentor, seven time presidential painter Everett Raymond Kinstler, N.A., -who she trained under at The Art Students League and The National Academy of Design, both in New York-says of her work: “Johanna’s paintings are filled with the joy of life, passionate and colorful.”
With her unique style, Spinks taught at the California Art Institute and The Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art and is frequently asked to give public painting demonstrations of her life painting techniques. She also received a certificate of distinction for her three-year term as the California State Ambassador for the Portrait Society of America.
Unsurprisingly, Johanna is masterful at capturing the imaginations of her students and collectors worldwide on social media. With her 365 Days of Drawing project in 2010-which was featured in American Artist Magazine-Spinks’ Facebook and blog followers were captivated by whatever subject happened to pique her imagination every day for a year, which included everything from Cadbury eggs and lingerie to fully rendered portraits. Whether she spends hours on a piece or months, Spinks’ most unique talent lies in her ability to render everything-from the ordinary to the exquisite-a style which has a luxe and timeless finish.
Her paintings hang internationally in private and public collections and her talent has been recognized numerous times in art competitions.
The Santa Paula Society of the Arts was founded in June 1968 and its Gallery is open Saturday and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m., also by appointment for tour groups.
To learn more about the society visit www.thespsa.com or call 805-525-1104 and leave a message; you can also email info@thespsa.com and indicate “SPSA information” on subject line.
