A Walk With Her: Elayna Johnson

We partnered with the talented Dallas based artist, Elayna Johnson, to bring our delicate yet fresh and whimsical watercolor orchid print to life. Emily discovered Elayna's work through lots of late night Instagram digging (where else?!). We immediately fell in love with her playful designs, intricate florals and soft color palette. After months of collaboration and meticulous refinement, we landed on our watercolor Orchid print - which has since been transformed into one of our silk scarves and printed smocked tops!

Tell us a bit about yourself and your beautiful painting and illustration business. 

I live in Dallas, Texas with my husband, Russell, our one year old son and our ginormous golden retriever, Peeve. I started my business in 2017 and went full time a little over two years ago! I have always been attracted to work that required creativity. I loved painting and illustrating so I taught myself how to edit my artwork on the computer and started making patterns and art prints. I love being able to come up with an idea in my head and work to translate it onto a paper.

How did you first get started as an artist and what drew you to watercolor as your primary medium? 

My dad is also an artist and I grew up learning from him. I also took art classes growing up. I remember having a book about drawing cartoons and thinking to myself it would be a lovely future if I could be a cartoonist! Not far off… I have always been drawn to watercolor. Everything painted with watercolor seems like a bit of an optical illusion. You can look at a painting and see it one way and then look at it later and notice something different. A lot of watercolor paintings are on the lighter side, but I love to really focus on the color for vibrant paintings.

What has been one of your favorite paintings or custom projects to date? 

I did a painting of Rachel Brosnahan of her Met Gala dress from 2019. We ended up chatting on instagram and I sent her the painting! I like to imagine it sits next to her Emmys.

What words of wisdom would you share to our community of women? This can be about anything - life, business, relationships, etc!

Be nice to yourself! Everyone starts somewhere and everyone is different. It might be nice to admire the way other people do things but what makes you unique is what makes you wonderful. If you get too focused on other people’s lives you will miss out on all the wonderful things happening in your own.

What do you do for fun?

I love reading, walks, and estate sales.