Retiree finds new passion for creating art

A retired accounts administrator has dedicated herself to becoming an artist, “jumping in with both feet.”

Pastel artist Meredith Johnson recently caught the attention of an international art connoisseur Joan Butterfield, who has persuaded her to stage her first solo exhibition. 

Johnson said: “Art was always something I intended to do someday.  When I realized retirement was around the corner I decided to get to it.  I signed up for classes with Sharon Wilson and then I was persuaded by a friend to do this show.  So I am jumping in.”

Canada-based artist and art curator Joan Butterfield, a childhood friend of Meredith, sees promise and will travel to Bermuda to support her friend in her first solo exhibition on May 3. Butterfield said: “I am amazed at Meredith’s ability to capture the beauty in mundane objects.  

Sensuality of colour

“She, in such a short period of time, has become skilled at using the sensuality of colour, infusing it onto her canvas, where endless nuances of abstract and representational images become comfortable in the same space.

“I’m so looking forward to travelling home to Bermuda, to support my friend, in this her first solo art exhibit.”

Butterfield, who is Bermuda-born, will travel with Chantal Gibson, an artist and senior lecturer at Simon Fraser University. 

The exhibition opens on May 3 in Johnson’s garden near Mangrove Bay, Somerset. When the mother of one is not painting, she is often gardening.  She is delighted to have her two passions collide in this way in a show she has titled Art With a Diff.

“Actually it’s a play on words,” Ms Johnson explained. 

“Firstly, every artist’s work is different and secondly my relatives have called me ‘Diff’ all my life.  When I was little somebody couldn’t say Meredith and I became ‘Diff’.”

Johnson has been trying to perfect her artistic style in pieces that depict buildings and everyday items around the house or in nature. She admits she hadn’t imagined putting on a show like this just two-and-a-half years into retirement. 

Art With a Diff is open to the public on May 3rd, 2014, from 3pm until 6pm at 3 Mangrove Lane, Somerset (rain date May 10).  Meredith Johnson’s art will be available for sale in recycled frames, in an effort to make the pieces affordable to as wide an audience as possible.