Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/742011
156 • S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S A s a talented artist and fellow sportsman, Cole Johnson renders color totally unnecessary when it comes to delivering epic viewing experiences. His scenes pack impact without him ever having squeezed a single glob of paint from a tube. His images are moody, mysterious, and unforgettable. We walk away and they stay with us, leaving all who interact with them the sensation of having encountered a real animal up close. What makes Johnson's work different from other sporting artists in the world? Get ready for this: He creates near life-sized drawings of elk and moose, bison, bighorn, and deer. Yes, let me say it again so this registers. Johnson. Makes. Near. Life-Sized. Graphite Drawings. Of Big Game. I've never seen anything like it in 30 years of writing about wildlife art. In August of 2015, when he unveiled another series of megafauna depictions at Astoria Fine Art in Jackson Hole, word had spread. People, both hunters and non- hunters alike, streamed to see them as if they were attending a museum exhibition. A native of upstate New York, Johnson was born in 1968. His relationship to the great Art by todd Wilkinson COLE JOHNSON IS TAKING ANIMAL DRAWING IN A NEW AND INSPIRING DIRECTION. outdoors was shaped by a youth spent fishing and hunting on the farmlands, deciduous forests, and secluded brooks that abound in the rolling foothills of the Catskills. Today his studio is located in the tiny town of Deposit. It's no surprise that Johnson has an innate ability to sketch live subjects. He didn't take an art class in high school, yet he still caught the attention of teachers who invited him to create a few pieces for a student art exhibit. From there, based on the positive response he received, he enrolled in a junior college fine arts program at Munson-Williams-Procter Institute of Art in Utica. Later he earned a BFA with a concentration in painting at the State University of New York in Buffalo. Johnson took studio classes, studying the nude human figure, sketching cityscapes and landscapes, drawing with conte color sticks, and dipping his brushes into oils. None of his work, however, involved animals. The training, he says, was invaluable, particularly in evolving his grasp of color value that has applications to his working in shades of gray. Fortunately, Johnson's instructors did not prevail in convincing him that any successful