Michael Chesley Johnson

One of the country’s top plein air painters, Michael works in oil and pastel in the American Southwest, coastal Maine and the Canadian Maritimes. He has been an invited artist to many national plein air painting events over the years and has competed in challenging locations such as the Grand Canyon.

Elected a Master Pastellist by Pastel Artists Canada in 2008, he is a Signature Member of the American Impressionist Society, the Pastel Society of America and a juried member of Oil Painters of America. He is the author of Backpacker Painting: Outdoors with Oil & Pastel and Through a Painter’s Brush: The American Southwest. A long-time contributor to The Pastel Journal and Contributing Editor for The Artist’s Magazine, he teaches plein air painting workshops across the US and seasonally in New Mexico and Maine.