California born artist Marilyn Johnson's love of bold colors and love of architectural details can be seen throughout her many paintings of once grand old building’s, primarily of Casco Viejo, Panama, but also from her childhood home and her  travels in Mexico and Europe.   The crumbling old buildings come back to life with the rich, bold colors that Marilyn uses.  While she has also used her love of color to paint the tropical foliage and people of Panama, historic buildings remain her favorite subjects. 

 

Currently living in Majagual, Rep of Panama, Marilyn was born and raised in a small, rural town in the central valley of California, and remained in California throughout her college years and most of her married life.  Marilyn has been drawing  for as long as she can remember, and she was usually the “go to” girl for any drawing projects in school.

 

During her years in California she continued to take art and drawing classes while maintaining a successful career in real estate and interior design.  In 1998 Marilyn and her husband Jerry decided to sell everything and move to a small island in the archipelago of Bocas del Toro, Panama.   She designed a house for their beach front lot and they moved there permanently in April 2000.  When this house proved to be too small for a full-time residence, she designed a house for their property next door, which they built and lived in until deciding to leave the island life and move closer to Panama City in 2006.

 

While in Bocas del Toro Marilyn continued painting small projects in acrylics that were offered for sale in local stores, but it wasn’t until she moved closer to Panama City and met successful expat artist Barbara Tuan Yu Dove that she was encouraged to branch out into larger and bolder paintings.  She prefers to use a mixed media of oil and acrylic on canvas.

 

Marilyn’s paintings have been on extended exhibit at the residence of the US Ambassador to Panama, and are in private collections in the United States, Canada, South America and Central America.