Figures appear and disappear across layers; some earlier marks are painted over completely while others remain visible. She is particularly interested in pentimento, the visible revisions found in historical drawings by artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo and Rubens, where initial lines were never fully erased. She is drawn to the animation these earlier marks give a drawing and the ambiguity that comes from seeing more than one version of a figure simultaneously.

The body is central to Johnson's work. She focuses on how flesh folds, stretches and shifts, and how the exposed body can feel abundant, sensual or overwhelming. Here too, Baroque painting, especially Rubens, is an important reference for the way she depicts movement and shifting flesh. Her approach to the body has shaped how she handles these forms and how they evolve across a surface. She pushes the figure beyond strict observation so that it moves towards something dreamlike or unstable, as though it is still forming. Bodies merge, soften or dissolve into biomorphic shapes, hovering between states. She is drawn to those moments when a figure appears to transform into something else. This interest is informed in part by hypnagogic imagery, where bodies and forms feel unstable and seem to slide into one another.

Her process involves working in layers, allowing each to dry before returning to it, often moving between several paintings at once. She mixes her oil paint with a generous amount of linseed oil so that the surface remains fluid. She is drawn to the liquidity and viscosity of oil paint, which reminds her of the inner workings of the body – fluids such as saliva, blood or sweat – and the way these textures can echo the surface of skin as they dry. The paint slides, pools or thins, causing forms to dissolve and reappear. She adds paint, rubs it back, glazes over areas and removes sections so that earlier versions of the image remain visible, almost like echoes of previous stages. There is something inherently hypnagogic about this process, in which forms drift in and out or unexpectedly re-emerge, recalling the shifting imagery experienced before sleep. She works close to the canvas and rarely steps back, surrendering a degree of control and allowing the painting to develop on its own terms. Gaps, partially formed figures and traces of earlier layers often determine what happens next.

Johnson's influences are wide-ranging, encompassing historical art, mythology, fairy tales, memento mori and, more recently, themes of masculinity. She is particularly drawn to the Carnivalesque for the way it disrupts conventional structures and allows things to slip out of place. She is also interested in public rituals and spectacles such as Turkish oil wrestling and Japan's Hadaka Matsuri. These events present bodies in states of closeness, tension and uncertainty, revealing how physicality can shift between play, struggle and instinct. Alongside these references, she draws on images she collects herself, from everyday photographs to scenes of bodies touching or moving in unpredictable ways. Together, these influences shape the way she constructs an image and thinks about forms that change, hesitate and overlap, resulting in paintings that feel full, fluid and slightly unstable, as though the image remains in motion rather than settling into a single state.

Johnson holds a BA in History of Art from University College London and an MA in Fine Art from City & Guilds of London Art School. In 2025, she was awarded First Prize in Jackson's Art Prize, having previously completed a two-month residency at Palazzo Monti in Brescia, Italy, in 2019. Her work is held in private collections and institutions across the UK, the US, Europe, Africa, Asia and South America. She currently lives and works in Oxfordshire, UK.