PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend Gallery is featuring artists Stephanie K. Johnson and Sally Pfaff this month.

The gallery at 715 Water St., is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday to Monday, as well as by appointment.

Johnson is a classically trained artist and graduate of the Aristides Atelier at the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle.

She aims to create oil paintings that invite viewers to experience the glow and mystery of the old masters, as she uses vibrant colors in her pieces.

Johnson’s career began at a young age. At 12, she entered her first gallery, Artisans on Taylor in Port Townsend, and by 14, she had incorporated her own business.

“With this exhibition, it was my goal to celebrate the beauty discovered in our natural world,” she said. “Whether it is treasured shells found on Port Townsend beaches, sunlit Tuscan hills or freshly picked oranges from a local garden, everything pays tribute to the wonder of nature.”

Pfaff paints landscape stories using acrylic medium. She thinks of her approach to creating a painting as having some similarities to writing a story.

Inspiration from a painting can come from photographs, sketches, life experiences or visual memories.

Sometimes the titles have clues, but ultimately the viewer must create their own story much the same as the artist has in the process of creating the painting.

Her more recent paintings are larger semi-abstract landscapes, most of which include water in different forms as it interacts with the landscape. Water shows emotion and mood and is often a central theme in her work.

Pfaff’s painting process varies from the medium diluted to a watercolor consistency as well as dry brush and viscous (straight out of the tube).

In the end she said, she hopes that her paintings transport viewers to a memorable place that allows them to pause and enjoy the present moment.

For more information, phone 360-379-8110 or see www.porttownsendgallery.com.