Today we’d like to introduce you to Johanna Spinks.
Hi Johanna, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
The famous portrait artist Alice Neel said:” I paint my time using the people as evidence.”
I have thought of this quote very often over my 25 year span painting people’s portraits, often from life, and I think it sums it all up perfectly. From the proverbial butcher, baker, candlestick maker, to many majors, movie star, senators, judges, families and kids, my aim is to paint their life story along side my own – through my brush.
I have lost count of how many faces and portraits I have painted but all these very human encounters have taught me in a profound way that there is a very special thread of humanity that connects and weaves through us all despite the challenging times we live in. Community and connectivity can always be found for me through a life sitting and to this day I find that very reassuring.
I am a British born, Los Angeles based portrait artist. My life began as an army brat living all over the world with my military famiy. On leaving school, I trained as a journalist working on a weekly newspaper, then daily. I moved to New York at the age of 23 and carried on freelancing for papers far and wide.. Two wonderful children eventurally came along, a move to Los Angeles, and a time to realize writing was not my thing anymore. A really enjoyable time followed working in Hollywood as a make-up artist trained at the Sunset Gower studios eventually working with the Celestine makeup agency. Life was good until a virus struck and I had a headache for two years. I had to stop working due to it and as I got better I took some art classes. I knew I had found somethng with portraiture as it felt very close to working on the human face with color powders, and I had a knowledge of good lighting after working with many great photographers in the makeup world.
I was largely self-taught but then received the gift of the art Gods with a very forturnate introduction to the great and famous portrait artist, the late Everett Raymond Kinstler N.A. who painted eight
presidential portraits while he was alive and a ‘who’s who’ of America over 50 years. He became my mentor and changed my life forever over our 13 year journey studying with him at workshops at The Arts Student League of New York and The National Academy of Design, New York. When he retired from teaching, I would make regular visits to he and his lovely wife, Peggy’s, home in Connecticut to paint there and learn some more.
Ev-Ray, as I called him, was a big part of what came next…I have been honored to receive recognition for my portrait work from the United States Congress, The California State Senate, multiple Oil Painters of America and California Art Club Gold Medal national shows as well as my portrait work being featured in the New York Times, American Artist Magazine,
International Artist Magazine, Where Women Create “Inspiring Workspaces of Extraordinary Women”, Malibu Times Magazine “Making A Difference” and many others. In 2008 I was awarded The Daler-Rowney “Excellence in Painting”
Award at Oil Painters of America, National.
So much was gifted to me by Ev-Ray that I became a big believer in giving back. I became very involved with the The Portrait Society of America in a voluntuneer capacity as its’ Co-State Ambassador for a few years and delighted to receive a Certificate of Recognition for that work hosting free workshops and demos by other well-known artists from California to help others learn and grow in their own work while furthering the awareness of the relevance of portraiture and education in today’s modern world. I continue to give portrait demos to local art groups and critiques, all at low cost, to share what I know so far. I am particuarly interested these days in using my art to highlight certain causes in the community, such as hunger. FOOD Share of Ventura County and I have partnered in the past through my art.
I have been lucky to paint paint notable sitters from Kip Forbes to Kevin Costner and have
five portraits in the permanent collection of The Players’ Club of New York
including Norman Rockwell, Rex Harrison and actress Angela Lansbury.
Something that remains very close to my heart is a 12 year public portrait project I worked on though my 50’s called “The Face of…” series where I painted about 125 people in three difffernt places, Ventura, Malibu and Charleston. Each sitter was painted from life in about two hours, no photos were used, and that oil sketch and the sitter’s life story connecting them to their town or city appeared in the local paper. on a very regular basis. The Malibu Times, The Ventura Breeze and The Charleston Mercury were my co-creators as without them this would have been a more silent project without a face.
The 58 paintings that made up the “Face of Ventura” now sits in the permanent collection of the
Museum of Ventura County, resulting in a Mayor’s Art Award for “Artist
in the Community” 2012.
The “Face of Malibu” comprising 61 oil portraits painted from life, and the
subsequent “Face of Malibu Rebuilds” ,17 watercolor portraits and interviews by
conducted by myself capturing people who their lost homes in the Woolsey Fire
resulted in a Dolphin “Citizen of the Year” Award 2019 for artwork contribution to the community.
“The Face of Malibu “and “The Face of Malibu Rebuilds “ were accepted into
the permanent collection of The Boone Special Collections and Archives,
Pepperdine University, in August 2021.
I have had numerous solo and group shows, the most recent being at the
Museum of Ventura County 2025 “What is Beauty – Rethinking Women’s
Portraiture in Art.” It was great to hang alongside artists working quite a long time ago while I am still alive!
More recently, in my private non-commission work I have been delving in 24K gold leaf gilding, techniques handed down from the Renaissance. Fingers are crossed for an upcoming 2026 solo show called “My Gilded Age
– A Journey into Gold Leaf Portraits”.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I think learning to draw well has certainly been a challenge, especially coming to art relatively late and not born with a pencil in my hand. People always say I am a hard worker but you can work very hard and still not master drawing. You have to come up with a plan and know which school of drawing you want to be in. I did a drawing challenge to myself in 2010 called “365 Days of Drawing”. It was the best thing I ever did. A solo show resulted from all those drawings and the challenge was also spot-lighted in the now defunct American Artist Magazine. I make sure every week to get my drawing practice in.
Rejection is also common place if you are an artist entering competitions, seeking gallery represetantion and agencies. Just keep chewing on that old bone, accept that you can’t win them all, you will never be everyone’s cup of tea, and it’s not always an equal playing field and often a very competitive one.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
‘I would describe my portriat painting style as contemporary with a palette knife twist.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I think finding a mentor is really worth shooting for, not one that is just going to teach you more about painting but also how to think like an artist, how to be disciplined, and how to handle rejection of which there is a lot. My mentor said you have to develop the hide of an elephant and the bowels of a rhinocerous. He was right.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.johannaspinks.com
- Instagram: @johannaspinksart
