Artist Erik Donovan

At The Artists’ Niche Co-Op Gallery in Nederland

04/10/2008 - The Artists’ Niche Co-Op Gallery in Nederland is now home to more than 20 member artists, most of whom make their home in the local mountain region. Erik Donovan Johnson is one of the founding members of the gallery, which hastily began business Thanksgiving Day weekend last year. In the span of about a week, he and a handful of other dedicated artists renovated the interior space of the former Pink Flamingo restaurant.      

  As the son of prominent Boulder painter, D. J. Donovan-Johnson, Erik grew up around his mother’s studio and inherited a natural artistic talent, though working in completely different mediums from his mother, and from his two sisters who also inherited the artist gene. He has lived in the Boulder region all his life, except for three years each in West Point and Germany as an “army brat” in the 1970s.  In 1991, he received an Architecture & Planning degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he refined his drawing skills. After filling hundreds of sketchbook pages with pen-and-ink drawings in his spare time, he began creating larger works, spending as much as six months on a single piece. Though he consistently hears the comment that his pen-and-ink work is reminiscent of M. C. Escher, he claims a strong influence from Salvador Dali. 

  After college, Erik embarked on a career in software development and moved to Nederland with his wife in 1994. As computers and printers improved, Erik started doing more and more of his art in the digital realm. In 2003, large-format archival-quality printers became affordable, “and suddenly digital art could escape the computer,” he says. He began making intricate photo collages from photographs he had taken while on various international vacations with his wife. Photographs from trips previous to 2003 had to be scanned manually, which was time-consuming. His collages from those trips typically incorporated up to 30 photographs. In 2004, he officially entered the digital camera age, which greatly reduced the amount of manual labor required and enhanced flexibility. Some of his collages produced recently contain images from nearly 90 separate photographs. He also stitches photos together digitally to form wide panoramas. Some of the countries represented in his digital work include England, Ireland, Guatemala, Peru, China and Italy.

  Erik has won a number of awards over the years in various Boulder Art Association and Louisville Art Association juried shows. Erik has an extensive online gallery of his work, including complete sketchbooks, at http://edj.net/vgallery. A selection of his original artwork is on display at the Artists’ Niche Co-Op Gallery. He changes his display from time to time, reflecting the diversity and depth of his work, so there is always something new and different in his corner.

  The Artists’ Niche is located at the traffic circle in Nederland. Store hours during April are 12-7pm Thursday-Sunday. If you are interested in becoming a member of the artist co-op, pick up an application at the store or email sharakay80466@yahoo.com.