Welcome! I am so happy you're here.
I’m Johnna Elyse and I’m the graphic and watercolor artist behind Johnna Elyse. Long before I ever dreamed of turning painting into a business, I was sneaking into my Gramma’s art studio.
Long before I ever dreamed of turning painting into a business, I was sneaking into my Gramma’s art studio.
Whenever my family visited her house, I would make my way into that little creative space to look at her paints, brushes, and whatever she happened to be working on. She was a beautiful artist, and I was always fascinated by the things she created.
When she passed away, I was lucky enough to inherit some of her paints and brushes.
So, those brushes you see in my Instagram photos?
Those paint tubes sitting on my desk?
They were probably hers.
And in a way, every time I pick them up, I feel like I’m carrying a little piece of her with me.
Because of my Gramma, becoming an artist has always been a dream of mine. But over the years, I’ve realized that what I love most isn’t simply painting beautiful things.
It was creating something that holds a memory. A painting is more than just a place.
It’s the magic of a memory.
Maybe it’s your childhood home. Maybe it’s the house where you grew up, the restaurant where you had your first date, the church where you got married, or the little cabin where your family spends every summer.
Maybe it’s one place.
Maybe it’s ten.
And that’s what I love about watercolor.
A painting can capture more than the way a building looks. It can bring you back to how you felt when you were there.
I have places and homes from my own past that are no longer part of my life — places that shaped who I am and where I came from. I can’t go back to them, but I can still look at the paintings I made of them and remember.
The Story Behind the Artist
My life has taken me to a few different places, and honestly, I never quite expected it to look the way it does today.
Here’s the short of it: our life together has been anything but ordinary.
After years of multiple surgeries, pain, and difficult decisions, my now husband, Joe. made the life-changing decision to have his left foot amputated in June 2014. Rather than letting that define what was possible for him, Joe threw himself into adaptive snowboarding and made his way onto the Team USA Para snowboard team.
We got married in 2018, moved to Colorado so he could pursue the sport, found out I was pregnant in 2021so we moved back to Virginia to be near family, and in 2022, our only daughter, Jameson, was born.
For a while, life was wonderfully full, but it was also a lot. Running a creative business while raising a toddler left me feeling a little lost. Somewhere along the way, painting started to feel like something I had to do instead of something I wanted to do.
So, I stepped away and I gave myself permission to focus on my family, be present with my daughter, and figure out what I really wanted.
And eventually, I found my way back to painting.
Back to the Mountains…and Italy
In 2025, our family packed up once again and moved to Midway, Utah, so Joe could train closer to the mountains and his training center in Park City and It turned out to be a pretty incredible chapter.
Joe went on to make the 2026 U.S. Paralympic Team, and we all traveled to Milano Cortina, Italy, to cheer him on at the 2026 Paralympic Games.
His first race ended with an injury, but he kept going, ultimately finishing in the top 10 in both of his disciplines.
Watching him continue to pursue something he loves, even when things don't go according to plan, has reminded me of something I think about often in my own creative life:
You don't have to follow a straight path to end up exactly where you're supposed to be.
And that trip to Italy really guided me back to painting.
A little more about me
I’m a creative, a paper-goods nerd, a lover of French fries and sweet tea, a hiker and explorer, and a lifelong beach girl who somehow fell completely in love with the mountains.
When I’m not painting or designing, you’ll probably find me exploring somewhere new on a hike, reading a book, spending time with my husband and daughter, or hanging out with our sweet pup, Grohl.
And somewhere nearby, there’s probably a paintbrush that belonged to my Gramma.
I think she’d be pretty happy knowing where it ended up.
Thanks for being here!
And for letting me help turn some of your favorite places and memories into something you can hold onto forever.
