As a painter in the so-called “Luminist” style, Johnson’s paintings tend to stress the horizontal, and demonstrates the artist’s close control of structure, tone, and light. The light is generally cool, hard, and non-diffuse, rather than soft and atmospheric. Brushstrokes are concealed to minimize recognition that the painting is an artifact. Luminist paintings tend not to be large, unlike the more majestic canvases painting by the dominant Hudson River School artists, and rather suggest a sense of calm intimacy.
