Arthur Johnsen

His works were exhibited at venues including the Volcano Art Center, Honolulu Hale, and the East Hawaii Cultural Center. In 2013 he was exhibited at the Andrew Rose Gallery in Honolulu, among eleven artists collectively considered the "leading landscape painters from the Islands".

A retrospective of his work, in particular his plein air impressionistic paintings of vistas of the Red Road in Lower Puna, was presented by the East Hawaii Cultural Center at the Hawaii Museum of Contemporary Art from January 3–29, 2014. The museum and cultural center published a book of the exhibited works, entitled Paintings of the Red Road by Arthur Johnsen.

His paintings were sold at the Ohana o Hawaii gallery in Hilo, and when owner Randy Farias retired in 2005, it was renamed the Arthur Johnsen Gallery under the ownership of Johnsen and a business partner. In 2012, Johnsen closed the gallery and moved his paintings to the newly formed One Gallery in Hilo.

In 2005, Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park finished refurbishing its Visitor Center, and replaced the Hitchcock painting with Johnsen's The Goddess Pele. It is on permanent display beside the center's fireplace.

He is best known internationally for his 2003 painting of the volcano goddess Pele, which was chosen from more than 140 entries to represent the goddess at the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, and is on display at the main visitor center there. He is also known for his Hawaiian landscape paintings, including those of the rural tree-lined coastal Red Road in Lower Puna.

In early 2003, the group of Native Hawaiian elders, or kupuna, advising the superintendent of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park on cultural matters were concerned that the painting of the volcano goddess Pele in the main visitor center did not portray the goddess in a culturally appropriate manner. The portrayal which had been on display at the center since 1966, a 1927 painting by D. Howard Hitchcock, pictured Pele as a blonde Caucasian woman. The Kupuna Committee and the park staff worked with the Sacred Mountains Program of The Mountain Institute, which had funds from the Ford Foundation, to put out a state-wide call in March 2003 for paintings of Pele which the elders would select from in August of that year. An $8,000 prize for the winning entry was offered. More than 140 paintings were submitted for the competition.

Johnsen lived along the Red Road near Kehena in Lower Puna on the Big Island of Hawaii, in the home he built in 1992. He died in November 2015 following a sudden illness.

He moved to Puna on the Big Island of Hawaii in 1989. He was artist-in-residence at Kalani Oceanside Retreat from 1989–1998, and also did fabric design for Kona Village Resort. In 1992 he moved to his own house in the Lower Puna area.

He noted that he had been living in Puna, close to the active lava flows, since 1989, and had seen the destruction of Kalapana and the beach at Kaimu, and had watched lava flows from his home. He added that his proximity to the steady active lava flows made him "feel closely connected [to Pele] on a very personal level".

Johnsen was born in Hawaii on the island of Oahu, and attended Punahou High School, graduating in 1970. He studied graphic design at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1974. He returned to Oahu for work and further study, lived for a while in Volcano Village on the Big Island beginning in the late 1970s, and later spent five years in Los Angeles doing freelance design work in the garment and costume industry.

Arthur Johnsen (August 27, 1952 – November 15, 2015) was an American artist. Born and raised on Oahu and living most of his post-university life on the Big Island of Hawaii, he is known for his impressionistic paintings and murals of Hawaiiana.