Frank Tenney Johnson Western Art "Lonely Night" Tile

Frank Tenney Johnson was a painter of the Old American West. His style of painting, “The Moonlight Technique”, gave the illusion of moonlight and starlight drenching his images with mystery and atmosphere. To paint his pictures he used fingers, knives and brushes. He spent his early years as an illustrator in New York City. After numerous trips to the west to gather source material he finally moved to California and set up his studio in Alhambra. As his easel painting became more popular, he was able to concentrate solely on this aspect of his art. In his later years he worked almost exclusively from his studio in Cody, Wyoming and many of his studies were based on field trips into Yellowstone National Park. This night painting of a cowboy resting for the evening with the wagon and cattle settled behind him and a small fire burning cheerily before him, is called “Beginning of a Lonely Night”.