Colorful Artist Teaches Others at Lakeside

Artist Johanna Gullick learned to draw at her mother’s knee growing up on her family’s dairy farm in Black Earth, Wis. 

Today she creates colorful paintings in oils, acrylics and watercolors and shares her knowledge of those mediums with others at the Lakeside Legacy Arts Park in Crystal Lake. 

Gullick’s mother was very artistic, however being a farm wife meant little opportunity for pursuing her talents. Instead, she’d draw women for her six young children to color. 

While a temporary diversion for her siblings, the exercises transformed Gullick into a budding young artist. She further was inspired by encouragement from fellow classmates in school. 

“It became part of my identity,” she said. 

However, it wasn’t until the late 1980s that she made the decision to focus on the arts. Until then, she’d been busy raising a family in the northwest suburbs of Illinois. She took an occasional class now and then, but she just didn’t have the time to devote to creating a large body of work. 

She graduated Northern Illinois University with a bachelor of fine arts in 1990, followed by a Master of Fine Arts at the same university in 1993. 

It was in her undergraduate studies that she transitioned from drawing into painting, initially starting out with acrylic paints. 

She began exhibiting her work in 1990 and continues doing so today throughout northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. The majority of her 20 private collectors reside in the same area.

Some of her colorful works might be considered abstract and are composed of still life settings Gullick creates herself or from her photographs of people or nature scenes. 

“If I talk about my work, I always talk about my color because it’s so important,” she said. 

Many of her watercolors are reflections of her own garden, and in fact florals dominate that medium. Her oil and acrylic paintings, focusing on landscapes, tend to be more representational of her subject and an avenue where she can play with melding real and abstract elements into her canvases. 

“First and foremost, I paint for me,” she said. “I don’t want to paint just an ordinary flower. I want a spectacular flower.” 

Whatever the method, the subjects are drawn from her own experiences, giving her work personal meaning. 

Gullick moved her home-based studio to Lakeside in 2005 and decided to offer classes and workshops taking advantage of her 11 years as a college-level art instructor. 

She’s taught art programs at Elgin Community College, McHenry County College and Columbia College, and since 1999 has been an instructor at Crystal Lake School District 47 in its staff development program.

She runs classes and workshops throughout the year, allowing students to work from their own photographs and in their own style. 

A good number of her students have worked with her at MCC, others were inspired to take a class based on the recommendations of existing students. 

Carol Otto of Crystal Lake took one of Gullick’s watercolor classes at MCC and followed her to Lakeside, when she opened her studio there.

It was her first experience with painting and she credits Gullick’s masterful teaching abilities wither her continuation of her watercolor paintings. 

She signs up for every class Gullick offers, and in fact when people ask her what she wants for her birthday, she will ask for money to pay for a class. 

“She’s so knowledgeable and so kind, she will critique your work in such a nice way,” she said. 

Another student, Sandra Ferguson also has been a regular student of Gullick’s at her Lakeside studio. 

“She can look at what you’re doing and evaluate it and tell you specifically in what direction you can improve,” said the Crystal Lake resident. “She always seems able to find things to stimulate you.” 

Both students have participated in the student shows through Lakeside with their Gullick-inspired paintings; Ferguson has gone on to create a career of her art, selling her acrylic works at local art shows. 

Gullick offers classes in watercolors, acrylic and oils for levels from beginner to advanced year-round at Lakeside. 

“I consider myself an educator and an artist,” she said. “I enjoy helping people become better artists.”