Sharing the Love of Painting on 78th Street / Betsi Morris & Ron Johnston

I always love popping by the 78th Studios on the West side of Cleveland. For me the trip starts with the drive downtown on Route 90W along the shores of Lake Erie, seeing the yacht clubs along the way, the pier at E55th Street Marina dotted with fishermen or crashing waves, the Burke Lakefront Airport, the Great Lakes Science

Museum where I spent countless hours when my children were young, the Browns Stadium where you can pull up to a parking space right in front to run inside the pro shop to buy the latest Browns' gear....and then you drive elevated along the edge of downtown Cleveland and violá, there you are, at ease driving on the Detroit Shoreway.

The Detroit Shoreway begins as patches of greens and blues that consist of Edgewater Park, Whiskey Island Marina, and Wendy Park dotted along the shores of Lake Erie and then slightly inland sections include the Gordon Square Arts District, Cleveland EcoVillage, Lorain Avenue Antiques District and the 78th Street Studios. The 78th Street Studios is the largest art and design complex in Northeast Ohio consisting of 170,000 square feet of art galleries, art studios, performance spaces and music recording studios.

It is here inside the 78th Street Studios where Betsi Morris and Ron Johnston share a creative studio space to paint, ponder, exchange witty humor, and share the love of oil painting. Their studio, with a wall of factory windows, radiates light and joy.

Betsi and Ron have a wonderful creative synergy both on and off the easel. Walking into their shared studio/gallery reminds me of walking into my AP Art History teacher's room full of wonder and adventure! They are often painting still lifes, planning their next Plein Air landscape location and/or critiquing each others canvases while exchanging ideas and encouragement. Betsi finds impressionistic inspiration by exploring landscapes and color in the urban neighborhoods and in simple still lifes while Ron, working in the realist tradition, finds solace in landscapes in Maine, Europe, Ireland, working in plein air and taking commissions.

You too can come visit Ron and Betsi at 78th Street Studios. Every Third Friday of the month from 5 - 9 pm, over 50 venues inside 78th Street Studios open up at the same time to present compelling visual exhibits, ambient music, delicious cuisine, and pop up vendors. Named Cleveland's Best Arts Event by Scene Magazine and Best of Yelp Cleveland, THIRD FRIDAYS is a multisensory art experience like nothing else in this region.

I am honored to show both Betsi's and Ron's oil paintings on my online gallery for you all to ponder, enjoy and consider when buying original art. A painting from their studio, will radiate the same light and joy into your home that is the essence of their combined efforts on 78th Street.

More about Betsi and Ron:

Betsi Morris Artist Statement-

I have a background in Art History with a studio minor. I share a studio in 78 th street studios with Ron C . Johnston, an highly gifted impressionist painter. I am inspired by landscapes and color. I find joy in exploring the Detroit Shoreway and other urban neighborhoods that are finding a new energy. My latest medium is working with waterbased oils.

I love gardens, shorescenes and the joyful mixture of urban communities. Mostly I love interacting and discovering what artists and gallerists are interested involved with as well. Their enthusiasm lifts me up too! Its wonderful to have a studio that is in the center of such creative energy. I feel blessed to be surrounded by the challenge of art.

Ron Johnston Artist Statement:

I am a Plein Air painter in the most literal and traditional sense. Working with oils I return to my subject in the field each day until the painting is done. On rare occasions I will finish a painting in the studio or accept a commission to be painted from photos or other reference. Initially starting out as a painter in a fairly tight realist/renders tradition, my emphasis in recent years has been to try to become looser and freer in my work. Especially in the areas of color and paint application.

My painting, “ Yew Trees In Winter “, I feel is a good illustration of this. Primarily a landscape painter, I occasionally paint the figure as well as still life’s. Though it is in painting landscapes that I feel the most free to push the boundaries of technique and expression.