Meet Tara Johnston, our current featured artist at Art of Bastrop!
How long have you been a Bastrop based artist and how did you find your way here?
I’ve lived in Bastrop for the past three years. I moved here for more space and quiet than the city could offer, and it’s been an incredible gift. It’s allowed me to slow down and be more intentional with both my work and the direction of my creative practice. Because so much of what I create is rooted in nature and botanical forms, the change of scenery has felt both grounding and creatively energizing.
When did you realize that you were an artist?
I realized early on in grade school. I’d find a way to turn almost any assignment into something visual. If there was an opportunity to draw it, design it, letter it, or simply make it look prettier, I did. Over time, that instinct evolved into a career as a mural artist, where I get to work at a much larger scale.
Can you speak to your art training?
I earned my BFA in Interior Design from the University of North Texas in 2010, but my relationship to art started long before college. I took art lessons growing up, and my parents were always incredibly supportive of creative pursuits. My sister is an artist as well, so making things was simply part of everyday life for us.
That early encouragement carried into my formal education, which gave me structure and discipline. But much of what I’ve discovered as an artist has come from curiosity, steady practice, and learning through experience.
Where do you find inspiration?
Nature is my main anchor. I’m constantly collecting visual details from the flowers and plants around me. Beyond that, I’m drawn to typography, vintage textiles and packaging, folk art, and floral patterns. I’m inspired by things that feel handmade, and I’m especially interested in how decorative arts can live in our daily spaces.
What is your work concerned with?
My work is concerned with nature and the relationship between art and environment. I’m interested in how natural forms can exist within built spaces and enhance how those spaces are experienced.
Flowers are the primary language I use to explore that idea. They’re forms I can manipulate, repeat, simplify, and scale to build dynamic compositions. I’m interested in rhythm, balance, and how color relationships create different energies within an image. At times, I incorporate hand-lettered phrases so language becomes part of that visual framework.
When translated onto walls, the compositions move beyond the image and influence the atmosphere of a space. That relationship between art and environment is what keeps me interested.
What is your preferred medium(s)?
Acrylic latex paint for murals. I also love working with cut paper, markers, and ink for lettering, sketches, and compositional studies.
Can you talk a little about your creative processes?
My creative process begins with noticing what draws my attention and recording it through sketches, photos, or quick studies. From there, I work intuitively, drawing and refining forms, testing repetition and scale, and building color relationships until a composition feels resolved. It’s a mix of analog and digital working from paper to iPad back to the computer.
With client work, that same instinct is present, but it’s supported by research and shaped by the client brief.
Do you have any feelings towards digital versus traditional mediums?
Both are essential to my practice. Digital tools allow me to explore composition and color with flexibility before committing to paint. Traditional mediums bring in texture, scale, and unpredictability, which often leads to unexpected beauty. They serve different purposes but support the same creative language.
Who are some artists that you look to?
I try not to idolize specific artists too heavily, but I’m drawn to creators who work boldly with color, pattern, and abstraction. I’m especially interested in artists who blur the line between fine art and design.
If you could own one piece from a living artist, who would it be?
I tend to collect work from friends and artists within my own community. Supporting people I know personally feels meaningful, and I love living with pieces that carry shared history.
Big question. What do you feel the role of art is in the world?
For me, it changes how we experience our world. It adds beauty, it can shift the feeling of a space, or make something ordinary more interesting. And for the person making it, it’s a way to build something from nothing, to follow curiosity, work through doubt, and stay with an idea long enough to see what it becomes. Both sides feel important to me.
What else do you enjoy besides making art?
I’m happiest outside, playing disc golf, gardening, or reading in my hammock. I love interior design, music, and taking road trips anywhere there are rivers and mountains. Being in wide-open landscapes always resets me creatively.
Where can we find your work?
My murals live throughout Austin and Central Texas. You can see more at tarajohnston.co or on Instagram at @taraleighjohnston.
Any final advice for all the artists reading out there?
Keep making work even when no one’s watching. The quieter seasons are often the ones that shape your voice the most.