Christine Johnson
(b. 1959, Melbourne. lives and works in Melbourne)

Christine Johnson’s artistic practice spans painting, drawing and printmaking, which she often adapts into public art, sound and installation works. Forging links between botany, art and science, her explorations of historical narratives and native flora raise pertinent questions about our relationship with the environment, place and belonging.

Eremophila, 2022, is part of a larger body of work inspired by Eileen Ramsay (1886–1961), a Mallee botanist whose steps Johnson has been retracing since first seeing her specimen folio at the Mildura Arts Centre. With the help of local plant enthusiasts Marion and Peter Lang, Johnson searched the Murray River region to identify which flora from Ramsay’s list still grew in their natural ecosystem. One such specimen was eremophila, a desert-loving plant endemic to Australia that is considered sacred by various Indigenous communities and prized for its medicinal qualities.

Johnson creates layered images from her finely rendered drawings by combining digital and intaglio processes. The image is at once a celebration of the hardy plant and a plea for its conservation. With over 250 sub-species that have evolved to withstand harsh and arid conditions, many of the genus are now under threat from habitat loss caused by land-clearing, mining and farming practices.

‘The simple act of drawing deepens my contemplation of the miracles of nature’, explains Johnson. ‘It is through nature we can find our place in the continuum of beauty and mystery that the first peoples of this country have always known.’

Johnson has exhibited throughout Australia since the 1980s, with numerous solo shows held across capital and regional cities. She was awarded a Creative Fellowship from the State Library of Victoria in 2012, and her extensive research into early Australian botanical art resulted in the exhibition Voyages Botanical, which toured to ten galleries across Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales from 2014 to 2019. Significant works can be seen in Melbourne at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Park Hyatt Hotel and Crown Promenade Hotel, and in the public collections of the National Library of Australia, State Library of Victoria, Monash University, University of Queensland, Artbank and Victorian regional art galleries in Mildura, Benalla and Hamilton. She holds a Diploma of Fine Art from Monash University and a Graduate Diploma of Fine Art from RMIT University.