Mountain Brook artist featured in Artists Incorporated, national watercolor show

Watercolor artist and Mountain Brook resident Tora Johnson said she was delighted when the Artists Incorporated Gallery, an exhibit space that recently moved from Vestavia Hills to Leeds, asked her to display and sell her work.

Johnson has been part of Artists Incorporated since she moved to Birmingham from Anniston, Alabama, about 10 years ago. She said although she’s been able to sell quite a few of her paintings there over the years, the best part for her has been the community of artists.

“The most enjoyable thing for me is the common interest, and the gals and fellows are just so nice and warm and interesting, and everybody’s doing a different style,” she said.

Artists Incorporated is a fine art gallery dedicated to showcasing a full range of visual and 3D art from southern artists. On any given day, Johnson displays five paintings in their gallery, and when she is asked to be a featured artist — as she will be during October, she said — she showcases even more paintings. 

Johnson, who has painted for over 30 years, has also been the Alabama Watercolor Society president for the last several years. She said because she doesn’t have the ability to paint from images in her head, she usually takes pictures of interesting or unusual sights that she would like to paint later. Sometimes, she uses her sketchbook to draw it and then paint it. 

“I try to look for something that is totally different rather than the same old fruit and basket and flowers and so forth that so many people paint,” she said. 

Some interesting sights she’s painted recently from pictures she’d taken include: a dog standing by a fallen tree in Cuba, right after Hurricane Matthew; some smoked and cured fish from a market in Russia; and a monkey looking for a mango that came right up to her cabin window in the Caribbean island of Nevis.

The monkey watercolor piece, she said, was the one accepted to the Watercolor Society of Alabama National Exhibition this year, which she said “is an honor” and allows her to compete for recognition among watercolor artists all over the U.S.

Although she said she primarily “paints for joy,” Johnson said she also likes being recognized for her work as an artist. That’s why having nearby galleries like Artists Incorporated is important to display her work and get her name out there.

Lynne McCain, the gallery director for Artists Incorporated, said Johnson is a talented and innovative artist.

“While she is an accomplished artist, she continues to explore and study new materials and techniques,” McCain said. “The result is an exciting body of work, which Artists Incorporated is proud to show.”

Johnson said she also enjoys painting magnolias, especially some of the lesser-known ones like the cucumber tree magnolia. At the times she doesn’t paint from photographs or sketches, she said she will pour some watercolors until she finds an object or something realistic in the pouring, which she then makes into a painting. 

“Although I like to do the unrealistic, so many buyers like to see something in [paintings],” she said. “So if I can hide something in them that they can look for, I try to do that sometimes.”

To see or buy Johnson’s watercolor pieces, she encourages locals to visit the gallery at 6200 Grand River Boulevard East in Leeds. To find out more about her painting and others competing in the national watercolor exhibition, go to watercolorsocietyofal.org.