Tim Johnston’s art is oceans from heaven
The ocean is his muse and Mosman artist and former TV pop contestant Tim Johnston brings a unique perspective to the field
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Timothy Johnston is a man of impeccable manners. When I arrive at his Mosman studio there is a chilled bottle of sparkling water sitting elegantly on a side table, a much-welcomed refreshment on what is an incredibly hot day. Thankfully it’s cool inside his street-front workshop and before sitting down for the interview he shows me around the small space. A huge canvas hangs in the window and all the walls are lined with his ocean-themed art. Layers of turquoise hues sweep into shoreline rocks while delicately painted bubbles pop out across the surfaces. Standing in front of them, there’s a distinct feeling of floating above and being immersed in the sea all at the same time.
“I’ve been passionate about the ocean for a while,” Johnston says.
“The ocean has always been my muse. I’m an abstract artist at heart but my work falls between the cracks of abstract and real.
“I love that ambiguity because that’s where people’s imagination takes flight and they can find themselves in the work.”
Johnston moved into the studio at Reginald St shortly after the pandemic started last year and locals walking past may do a double take when they spot him inside busy at work at his easel. Although I had never met him before, his face is familiar thanks to his other major talent: his voice. He was a finalist on Australian Idol in 2009, the year Stan Walker won, and he also reached the bootcamp stages of the UK version of the X Factor. (If you need a refresher check out his rendition of the Beatles classic Yesterday on YouTube). It was clear on Idol that Johnston wasn’t a natural pop singer — his vibrato-rich voice leans more towards gospel blues and soul — but nonetheless he enjoyed his time on the show. While many contestants on reality platforms speak out later about how they were burned by the experience, he has nothing but positive memories. He got exposure to the music industry, met some good friends and discovered what direction he wanted to take as a musician. Johnston continues to sing and write songs but painting has taken his full attention these days in many ways.
“I discovered that my talent was something I definitely needed to pursue further but to do it in a way that I was able to tell my story through music, understand what that story was and understand what genre I was,” he says.
“I was in the top nine and from there I decided I would continue song writing. I really wanted to expose myself to pursue music and pursue it in a way that was genuine.
“Music is my greatest love and art is just as strong for me. They feel like my left and right hand. They are very much a part of who I am.”
The Idol experience delivered another major positive; it brought him to Mosman. The contestants were put up in a house in Balmoral and it was during that time he realised that he wanted to live in the suburb. Being surrounded by so much natural beauty gave him a sense of freedom and he eventually made it his home three years ago.
It has proved to be a major inspiration for his work and many of his paintings are impressions of Chowder Bay and surrounds. He also considers Mosman to be a muse.
“I’d been here before and loved the area but getting to live here, that was something,” he says.
“There’s a difference in submersing yourself in it and it made me realise this is the place I love and feel at home.
“Being so close to population and so close to nature, it’s a great mix.”
His passion for painting marine landscapes is more than just about achieving the perfect balance of colours, layers and brushstrokes. Ocean conservation is at the heart of everything he does and he wants his work to showcase the beauty of the underwater world and the animals that make it their home. Through his painting he hopes to keep the conversation about ocean protection alive and not to let it become a shadow in light of everything else that’s going on in the world. It’s not all well-meaning talk as he makes significant donations from the sales of his work to environmental causes.
“Through showcasing the beauty of what we have, it’s a call to action to conserve it, protect it and fight for it,” he says.
“The ocean feeds us, it cleans the earth, it provides so much to us. Unless we take care of it a lot of those species are going to die and they are already going.
“I’m not the expert but I’m the artistic observer. I want to encourage others to find their voice and their action as well.
“People are just taking advantage of it and it’s being overfished. We are high consumers as humans for no apparent reason sometimes and we take more than we need. I’m being told the next ten years is critical.”
Through his campaigning, Johnston has become friends and is collaborating with some influential figures in the environmental arena. Champion diver Sam Fricker, who is hoping to make his first Olympics this year, runs a business selling eco-friendly straws in a bid to reduce the impact of the increasingly unpopular plastic versions. He spoke about the vortex of plastics in the oceans on the opening night of Johnston’s last show, Empowering Ocean Exhibition, and Fricker is set to use a turtle painting as his brand emblem.
Another champion of his work is Valerie Taylor OAM. She was the patron of last year’s show and it was a real honour for him as he grew up watching her documentaries. They have become great friends, enjoy dinner together every week and even though they only met for the first time last year, it’s like they have always known each other. In the booklet for the exhibition she spoke about why it meant so much for her to see his concern for the ocean.
“We need a million young people like Timothy who have the wisdom to look into the ocean and paint, photograph and write about our marine world bringing its wonders to the uninitiated,” she wrote.
“I have had my day. The future of our oceans is in the hands of the young and dedicated, the Timothy Johnstons of this planet.”
Taylor is the main inspiration, one could also say muse, for the current set of paintings he is working on. Together they flicked through thousands of her underwater photographs and spectacular aerial shots of the Great Barrier Reef to find images for him to interpret in paint. Some of the works are emerging with a photographic feel, while others are driven by the brilliance of the colour and movement in the original images. It is a personal thrill for him to work from photographs taken by such an iconic marine conservationist and it has led to what will be an extremely special event: a joint exhibition.
Kingdom of Coral is due to open in late May and will see Johnston’s canvases hang together with a selection of Taylor’s paintings. Alongside being famous for diving with sharks, it will be a surprise for many of her fans to discover Taylor is a talented artist and creates works of art about the creatures she shared her dives with over the years. There’s great white sharks, puffer fish and sea turtles, often painted swimming through imaginary watery dreamscapes.
“Very few people know that I paint. They associate me with sharks and it’s rather a strong swing in another direction,” she told the Mosman Daily.
“I’m happy to be with Tim because I like his paintings and I find them fascinating. In a way it’s a big thing for me.”
Their artistic work flows from the same passion for the ocean and they want to see stronger protections granted to the Great Barrier Reef. When she first dived there in 1958 it was rich, vibrant and bursting with life but on her last visit she describes it as a “sad replica” of what it once was.
The world’s largest coral reef system is listed as a World Heritage Area and is also classified as the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. However, Taylor and Johnston argue this is not enough and are determined to see it upgraded to a marine national park or sanctuary zone.
Their partnership as artists is bringing a strong focus to the cause and they want people to join them to rally for its realisation.
“We are both artists, we both love the ocean and we both have that connection to marine life,” he says.
“To be friends and working with her and having her exhibit alongside my paintings, it’s very hard to take in for me.
“I never dreamt that would have happened. Life takes twists and turns you would never have expected.”
Kingdom of Coral will be on show from May 29 to June 12 at Timothy Johnston’s gallery at Shop 6, No. 37 Reginald St, Mosman.
Originally published as Tim Johnston’s art is oceans from heaven
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