Johanna was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, in 1957 she moved with her family to Canada and in 1972 moved to the beautiful Creston Valley.

Johanna has practiced almost every form of art, she has done drawings with pencil and pen, calligraphy, scratch-board art, pastel and charcoal drawings, painting in acrylic, watercolor and oil, she has made clay and practiced in photography, she has worked with stained glass, silk dyeing and origami projects.

All Johanna’s life she has been enjoying art, Johanna’s father taught her how to draw at a very young age. Johanna moved on to take many art classes and workshops; she studied in the Fine Art School in Rotterdam. She also went to Fine Art Schools in Paris, Belgium and Appeldoorn. She has attended workshops with Signature Master Artists, Zolten Zorbo and Joseph Fettingis. Johanna has shown her art in many wonderful places like Europe, Japan, Portland Oregan, and Belgium, she has shown locally at Park Studio Gallery and at the Prestige Inn in Cranbrook. In Creston she won the high aggregate for her art at the Creston Valley Fall Fair. Johanna also teaches all mediums to students ageing from 4 to 88 in her studio on 12th ave.

Johanna’s favorite artistic memory is sitting outside in Paris at the Louvre painting people on the street. Johanna’s father influences her art, her favorite art project was making clay Kreutels which are little fairy tale creatures with a head, arms, legs and no body imagined from folklore stories told to Johanna when she was young, the Kreutels body have never been seen. Johanna usually takes approx. 1 week to finish a painting; she is now working on a mural of a fairy she would like to display above her art store Park Studio Gallery.

Of all the art Johanna has practiced she would still like to learn more on stained glass. She joking says she would also like to learn the art of making money, but we all would like to learn that. Art is a legacy of her soul. She will leave it to her children when she passes. She lives to Create!

Johanna’s oldest art piece is silk ribbon embroidery that her mother made many years ago. The Third Eye by Lamp Ramsa is Johanna’s favorite book. Johanna belongs to the Creston Valley United Artist Guild and the Cranbrook Arts Council; she is also a founding member of the Creston Valley United Artist Guild. A tip Johanna would like to share with other artist’s is “Live to Create!”

Written by Yvonne Sulko

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