Born in Toronto, Ontario, the daughter of artist Franz Johnston and Florence Jamieson, she received her education at the North Toronto Collegiate and at the Ontario College of Art where she won two scholarships. She met her husband Franklin Arbuckle at the Ontario College of Art. They married five years later in 1934 after the worst part of the Depression passed and settled down in Toronto.
She was particularly interested in landscapes which she did very well but in 1937 her first daughter was born and she was no longer free to paint out-of-doors. She turned to painting interior studies and is one of Canada's most accomplished artists in this subject. For many years she was known for her Christmas cards and much later did a series of Canadian Wild Flower studies for Murray's Restaurants which were reproduced as part of the decoration for the menus. Her husband was moved to Montreal in 1941 while an employee of Bomac Engravers' and they lived there until 1958 when they returned to Toronto.
Much of her time had been taken up with the raising of her two daughters and it was not until the mid 1970s that she had been able to devote more of her time to painting. She had exhibited with the Royal Canadian Academy and with other Societies. Johnston passed away in 1987 at the age of 77.
Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume I: A-F", compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1977
