Photos by Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

Ken Johnson, who has been painting rural scenes from Southwest Virginia for more than 30 years, has a gallery/frame shop in Wytheville.

A book of paintings by Eric Sloane rests on Johnson's workspace. Johnson was heavily influenced by Sloane, a 20th-century American painter who specialized in 19th-century landscapes.

Johnson is known for his paintings of historic buildings and churches near his hometown of Wytheville.

WYTHEVILLE -- The scene is picture-perfect: A boy in a straw hat ambles down a rutted dirt road toward a cove, a fishing pole over his shoulder and a dog alongside. The sun casts slanted shadows across an old wooden barn adorned with advertisements.

The scene is just that -- a picture. The peaceful image was created not by nature, but from the oil paints and canvas of Ken Johnson, who called his work "It's a Beautiful Day."

After 35 years of painting rural scenes from Southwest Virginia, especially the historic buildings and churches near his hometown of Wytheville, Johnson has earned one of his biggest honors. In an online poll, "It's a Beautiful Day" was picked from more than 1,500 entries as the cover image for the AARP Foundation's 2010 calendar.

The voting wasn't close. Johnson's work earned more than 50,000 of the 90,000 votes cast. This time next year, Johnson's painting might hang in millions of homes.

"I am truly blessed," Johnson said recently while working in the cozy gallery that he and his wife, Phyllis, own in Wytheville. He also is the pastor of Morning Star Outreach Ministries.

"I give credit to God for everything."

The theme for the contest was "There's Nowhere I'd Rather Be." Artists were asked to submit works that featured "any cherished place or memory," a description that suits most of Johnson's work.

Johnson, 62, was invited to an exhibition and reception in Las Vegas to honor the artists whose work will appear in the calendar, but times are tight and he could not afford to pay his own way.

However, he is making an expenses-paid trip to Richmond, where Johnson, an AARP member, will be honored Thursday during AARP Virginia's Diversity and Aging Forum.

AARP, formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons, is a nonprofit advocacy and lobbying group for Americans 50 and older. The organization claims about 40 million members.

Minister turned him to art

Johnson was inspired by the countryside even though he grew up in town. He credits his parents, Reece and Ida Johnson, with instilling in him work ethic and craftsmanship. Reece was a carpenter and builder, who followed Ida's orders when she made him paint the family house every Christmas.

Johnson's paintings hark back to another age, when stone barns flourished and train depots sprouted on the rural landscape. His most popular works are of Wythe County landmarks, some of which still stand -- such as the shot tower that rises above the New River -- and some long gone -- the Boyd Hotel and train station in Wytheville.

The paintings are detailed, with attention paid to colors and shadows. Johnson was heavily influenced by Eric Sloane, a 20th-century American painter who specialized in 19th-century landscapes and barns adorned with Red Man chewing tobacco ads. His works were often compiled in books and he authored several volumes of folklore.

Johnson said that after he was saved by Christ in 1974, he was turned on to artistic pursuits by his minister, Isaiah Crockett. After dabbling in watercolors and taking a class at Wytheville Community College, he discovered Sloane's works.

He even visited Sloane at his home in Connecticut in the mid-1970s. He stopped at an antique store near Warren, Conn., and asked if the owner knew who Sloane was. The woman picked up the phone and dialed up the painter, told him a visitor was in town to see him and took down directions to Sloane's house.

Johnson laughs at the memory of his visit.

"I'd never been out of Wytheville before," Johnson said. "Here I am, a young black guy in a white 1962 Pontiac LeMans with a big stripe, driving through Connecticut to Eric Sloane's house."

Sloane was friendly, Johnson remembered, and showed him his collection of old tools, antiques and other vestiges of Americana. Sloane and his wife took Johnson to dinner, where they ordered duck.

"I said, 'I ain't ready for duck, chicken's the closest I've ever had,' " he said. "I didn't know how to talk to anybody, how to sit properly, now here I am with this famous artist."

Sloane invited Johnson back to his house the next day, but Johnson, fearing he would overstay his welcome and feeling uncomfortable in unfamiliar Yankee territory, declined the invitation and returned home. He tried to contact Sloane years later but never got a reply. Sloane died in 1985.

Good timing

Kenneth Atherley, owner of Peters Creek Frame & Art in Roanoke, recently bought four of Johnson's prints. Johnson is terrific at "replicating Sloane's techniques and picking his own subjects," said Atherley, who bought one print for his own home.

The exposure comes at a good time for Johnson, 62, whose business at Reaping Hook Gallery and Frame shop has been hit hard by the recession. In August, after seven years in a large space on Main Street, he downsized to a smaller spot on a side street.

Nevertheless, Johnson is well-known and quite popular around town, and his works have claimed honors from the Virginia Highlands Festival in Abingdon, the Associated Artists of Winston-Salem, N.C., in addition to a slew of local and regional awards.

"I never looked at the colors of something that closely until I watched him paint," said his wife, Phyllis Johnson. "I never noticed the purples in the sky or anything like that. I think he's awesome."