It takes patience and discipline to become a professional artist, and the artists life is not always glamorous. Just ask Scott Colin Johnson at his studio in Tolovana Hall.

Nearly every day for 10 hours, Johnson spends about as much time meticulously painting his watercolor landscapes as he does pacing before his canvas waiting, he said, for the spirit to come alive and for the piece to show him the direction it is supposed to go.

(Theres) a lot of staring at half-finished artworks, he laughed.

Johnson, a prolific self-employed artist and the artist-in-residence at Cannon Beachs Tolovana Arts Colony, is a busy man, despite what he describes himself as, among other things, fairly dysfunctional.

Chances are good that you have seen his paintings somewhere at least once.

On top of his gig as a full-time painter, Johnson teaches painting classes at Tolovana Hall, and is one of the yearly featured artists at White Bird Gallery in Cannon Beach and a cooperative member the Waterstone Gallery in Portland, where he has another studio.

He is also slated to be both the featured artist at the Stormy Weather Arts Festival and one of the featured artists at Portlands 20th annual Sitka Northwest Art Invitational during the first week of November.

Early influences

Johnson, a Portland native, found his focus early in life.

Ive always done art, and fortunately, even in grade school, I had a number of teachers who nurtured that, he said. My mother and my uncle Peter were both very good artists, and so that influenced me.

In his younger years, Johnson played trumpet and made jewelry.

Essentially, I was just trying to keep myself busy with things that I loved, not having a great aptitude to math, or even to writing, he laughed.

Then around age 20, when he was in college, Johnson decided to devote all of his energy to painting pictures and to concentrate on watercolors.

Why watercolors?

It seemed like it was the medium that was primary in Japan, Korea and China, where I felt like I got most of my influences from, he said.

Winslow Homer, Paul Cezanne and Maxfield Perrish made a particularly powerful impression on him.

Definitely a lot of the impressionists, he said. I learned a lot about painting watercolors by copying the impressionists work.

And like many artists of his generation, the drawing style that Disney studios became famous for during Johnsons childhood also crept into his work. Eyvind Earle, one of the early illustrators at Disney, definitely set my visual needs on fire.

Incessant imagery

The creative impulse is different for every artist.

Johnson longed to be a collector of artwork, but because he knew that most of the pieces he wanted to acquire were unattainable to him, financially and culturally, he just went about facsimile-ing a lot of that into my own realm of creativity.

For me, just incessant imagery would come up, and I would just try to express that through drawing or painting and photography, looking for those images, he said.

Practice, Johnson said, is the only way to become good at something. But I feel like there must have been some sort of aptitude or talent there also that said, This is good enough to keep going.

If you start selling art, thats a pretty good indication, he said.

The burgeoning watercolorist studied art and philosophy at Portlands Pacific Northwest College of Art and Portland Community College, respectively, but never graduated. The reason was simple: He didnt need to.

His advisers asked Johnson whether he was selling artwork.

I said, Yeah, I sell artwork all the time, he remembered. And they go, You dont need to be in school. Youre already doing what people often graduate not knowing how to do.

Johnson traveled across the country, spending time in the Midwest and Southwest, picking up inspiration along the way.

Little by little, he built up a repertoire, raised his prices and began exhibiting his work in galleries on both the East and West Coast.

Treat it like a job

Artists cannot expect the muse to be on call all day every day. It involves far less vanity, Johnson said, to approach to work as if the painter is just going to the office.

Its my job. I show up and Im ready to act busy until something, you know, really brilliant happens, he smiled. To look at it as being a job, hard work and something you cultivate puts you in a more humbling position, where youre almost like a vessel for that. And only certain people are the vessel for it, and thats it.

How does Johnson know when hes finished with a piece?

I used to say, When I sign it, its done. But I broke that rule about 10 years ago, he said. I often dont know Im done until someone says, Ill buy it. Its just the way it is.

Advice for future artists

Here is what every rising artists needs to know, according to Johnson.

First, draw all the time.

Second, learn every aspect of the art industry: from the different mediums to framing techniques to website creation.

Third, create a support network of like-minded artists.

Fourth, drop the ego stuff and look for a mentor.

Fifth, remember to ask others their opinion, and then move on. Dont take it personally.

And sixth, Johnson recommends that, as artists struggle to find their voice, they should let themselves be influenced by other artists from a wide range of schools, periods and cultures. I think a lot of artists are very isolated, and it keeps them in a pigeonhole.

But as artists come into their own, its really good to close off the outside information.

Once you hit a level of mastery, then its good to infer from your own level, he said.

Finally, there are pitfalls that young artists often fall into and should be avoided.

They try to leap to the front of the pack by pricing themselves out of a market, he said. Maybe they have one style, and then they put blinders on and keep pounding away at that one style until everyone gets bored by it.

Be courageous

As far back as he can remember, Johnson has been a showman. He is gregarious, spirited and loves personal interaction with the viewer and the listener.

Even when I was developing my painting repertoire, I would have dreams all the time about playing music in front of hundreds of people, he said.

Yet he cant deny that being an artist takes courage.

Theres only so many painters that have the courage to say, Im going to continue at this and actually show other people what Im doing.

It also takes humility. After all, not even Shakespeare could write Hamlet every time. In fact, just thinking of some of his past work makes Johnson cringe.

He Googled himself last week to try to find his new website only to discover that one of his older pieces is on auction at Portland OGallerie for only $75.

I should go get it, just to get it off the bidding block, joked a man whose work, on the low send, sells for $250 per piece and, on the higher end, between $1,200 and $1,600.

Its all a lesson in not taking oneself too seriously, though. Johnson even displays some of his older work for his students, even though its kind of torturous for me to look at that.

Lately, Johnson has been working to get placed in galleries in Manzanita and Salem. He recently launched a website for his giclee prints, which sell at a quarter of the prince of the originals. And he is developing a line of iPhone cases that have photo reproductions of his paintings on French rag paper.

Even when Johnson used to take breaks from painting, he remained artistically active in other ways: I may take a break from painting, but I will just draw, or I will travel and get influence through the place and the photography of that place.

But now, at 55, he doesnt take breaks. He cant.

Now it just feels like a vital life force, he said. It is something that keeps me happy and sane.