Vintage Dorie Johnson Seascape Oil on Canvas, Framed, c. 1970–1990

The Piece

A rocky coastline under a breaking sky. A pale sun sits behind a bank of cloud and throws a broad column of yellow light down the centre of the composition, the only warmth in a painting otherwise built from teal, deep green and near-black. A dark headland runs across the middle distance. Below it the water is worked in long horizontal strokes of green over blue, and surf breaks white against an outcrop of ochre and rust at the lower right. A few pale marks set gulls into the sky.

The handling changes with the subject. Sky and water are brushed thin and blended, so the weave of the canvas reads through them, while the rocks are laid on thick with a knife, standing proud of the surface in ridges and slabs that catch raking light and cast their own shadows. The canvas is set in a wide composition frame of acanthus scrolls, roses and a cross-hatched ground, painted white.

History & Provenance

The canvas is signed lower left in two stacked lines of dark red-brown capitals, DORIE / JOHNSON, with no date. The painter is most likely Doralie "Dorie" Johnson (1932–2015). Born in Baraboo, Wisconsin, she moved to Arizona in 1958 and became known as a watercolour and sketch artist in Tempe and Gilbert, where she was a member and later President of the Tempe Art League, teaching and selling her paintings there. With her husband John she later ran Frames by Dorie, a custom framing business in Gilbert. She died in Mesa in 2015.

Her recorded work is mostly watercolour, and this painting is in oil, so the attribution rests on the signature and is offered as likely rather than documented. No other painter signing Dorie Johnson has been found. A separate mid-century painter who signed Doris E. Johnson worked in oil on harbour subjects, but that signature uses a different first name, a middle initial and a cursive hand. The dating follows Dorie Johnson's working life. Dorie Johnson artist page.

Product Details

Why It Belongs in Your Home

The white frame is what makes this work in a modern room. An ornate gilt moulding would push a dark seascape back into the nineteenth century; painted white and softly worn, the same moulding reads current and throws all the attention onto that column of yellow light. Hang it where it catches side light so the knife work on the rocks comes alive. It is a strong single piece over a console or a bed and holds its own in a salon wall of mixed frames.

To care for it, hang it out of direct sun and away from heat sources and humidity. Dust the frame with a soft, dry brush, and leave any cleaning of the painted surface to a conservator.