Art Gallery

Giclee prints of original, nature-inspired artwork by two regional American artists, Gordon Johnson from Rhode Island and Rod Stemo from Wisconsin, will be available by summer 2027. They are the fathers of Charmaine and Tim.

Gordon Johnson (1935-2019)

Self portrait of artist Gordon Johnson. He has blue eyes, gray hair and beard.

Gordon Johnson was born in 1935 in Providence, RI. He was a gifted child artist and started taking lessons at the Rhode Island School of Design at age 12 and continued as an undergraduate for two years, until he contracted polio one year before a vaccine was available. After a long recovery at Matunuck on the beach painting watercolors, he decided to finish his education at the University of Rhode Island, where he studied philosophy. After graduating, he attended Rochester Colgate Divinity School and began a career as a Congregational Minister (UCC.). He was a strong advocate for social justice and the poor, establishing a food pantry, which still serves those in need 40 years later.

Gordon Johnson’s passion in life and his art was to see evermore clearly the world around him. He would always try to see through the everyday superficiality to grasp the essence of people and his surroundings. Art was more than a practice, but a philosophy, capturing the actual reality within all things that is so elusive. Gordon Johnson often painted en plein air by the ocean, or in forests. He liked to capture the timelessness of old New England farms, with their unique houses and barns. He also loved to capture his granddaughter in nature enraptured by its beauty. His art invites us to see through the mundane surface to the inner beauty that imbues everything.

***Garden Enchantment***
**Artist:** Gordon Johnson
**Price:** TBC
**Medium:** Giclee prints
**Dimensions:** Various sizes likely to include 30” x 20”
**Year Created:** Original acrylic painting 2001. Prints available in 2027
*A beautiful John Singer Sargeant-style painting of a little girl in her Grandmother’s garden.*

Pastel painting of a young girl dressed as a faery exploring her garden — ***Garden Faery***
**Artist:** Gordon Johnson
**Price:** TBC
**Medium:** Giclee prints
**Dimensions:** Various sizes TBC
**Year Created:** Original pastel on paper 2004. Prints available in 2027
*A young girl dressed as a faery exploring her favorite garden.*

Rod Stemo (1923-2020)

Black and white photograph of artist Rod Stemo pictured leaning against a tree with a camera around his neck.

Rod Stemo spent his formative years in Granville, Wisconsin, which is now part of Milwaukee. He graduated from Messmer High School in Milwaukee and entered the military, serving in the Eighth Air Force during World War II.

Rod is a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago (1952) with a Bachelor of Fine Art Degree thanks to the GI Bill. He painted in both oil and acrylics. His work has been purchased by businesses and private collectors in the US and London, England.

Rod was an Art Director for advertising agencies in Chicago in the 1950’s and 60’s. He opened a photography studio in Northbrook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago in 1970 specializing in men and women fashions and commercial photography.

In 1988, Rod and his wife, Mary Ann, started a bed and breakfast with his artist studio in Lake Delton, Wisconsin. His love of nature painting and photography continued throughout his career and life.

Rod Stemo described himself as a painter of light. He said, “Art is the key to living and the basis of life. Art is an expression of God’s beauty. The light I see in my paintings is the light of God. The forces of nature are the forces of God. Light bathes everything and sanctifies it. In my paintings and photographs, I see nature drawing me onto it.”