3QI with Angela Johal, an award-winning artist

Angela Johal, Vice President, Livermore Art Association

Website: www.angelajohal.com

Angela's online art galleries: Livermore Art Association / Pleasanton Art Association

Angela Johal is an award-winning artist and art instructor. Angela creates colorful abstract and realistic compositions with a unique style that blends vibrant colors with strong outlines and creative space treatment.

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Q1: Your imaginative compositions project an abstract view of reality. Do you create art with a carefully crafted and preplanned approach? Or, do you start with a basic idea and revise it based upon shapes, meanings and color combinations as you go along?  

Angela Johal:

I would say that most of my work involves a great deal of pre-planning. In my less abstract pieces, I pre-draw everything either directly onto the canvas or on tracing paper. Having a good composition and strong sense of movement is essential to my work. But then, with my collage series, I spent a whole day just playing with paint swatches, then when I became frustrated, I just pushed them together into a bird's nest shape which then inspired my new Collage Series. I do think that it is important to allow for intuitive surprises which cannot be controlled. I love to work at balancing color and shapes which is very intuitive. So, to answer your question, I love controlled chaos!

Q2: The right side of the brain has been linked to art that creates illusions and evokes emotions, whereas the left side of the brain is thought to foster logic and reason. Are the two human disciplines, art and science, as divergent as they seem? Or, are they actually interdependent? Does the best artist rely on logic and reason to draw geometric shapes with blended colors, and similarly, does the scientist explore imagination and creativity from the right side of the brain?    

Angela Johal:

I believe in using the whole brain, in that, as an artist it is necessary to know the properties of the paint, proportions, drying time, the scientific studies on how color works with the eye, etc. Studies on how the viewer's eye (through brain studies) is drawn to high contrast areas in a painting has influenced my work. I do think that there are times when you have to turn off the bossy left side of the brain which seems to attach words to what you are painting. It is also helpful to look at negative spaces when drawing or painting which the left side doesn't seem to understand. 

The left side seems to tell the right to make all shapes the same size, symmetrical, equal spacing, etc…I fight this in every piece I do.  Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards is a great book which explains the right and left functions of the brain and how we have learned this from studying stroke victims. From my experience, both artists and scientists share a strong sense of intuition and inventiveness. We embrace problems and challenges and work this part of the brain. Fear of failure is the worst enemy for an artist as well as a scientist.

 Q3: As a successful, award winning artist and art instructor, what is the single most important advice you would give to your students who wish to become professional artists? 

Angela Johal:

It's a time commitment. The more you engage in the artistic process, the more rapidly you improve. Don't rely on your feelings…paint and draw every day, play with shapes, keep playing and experimenting as a kid would, and whatever you do, don't grow up!

See Angela’s art at these upcoming shows and events

* Jan. & Feb. - Featured artist with Christine McCall in the lobby at the Bankhead Theater

                       - Solo artist in the Founder's Room at the Bankhead Theater, Livermore

 * Feb. 19-25 - Expressions Show, Tracy

* April 2 & 3 - Spring Art Show, Livermore

* May 29 - Art in the Vineyard, Wente Vineyards Estate Winery, Livermore