Born in Wheaton, Illinois, Avery Johnson was a painter, illustrator, and art teacher who settled in New Jersey, living in Dover and Denville. His primary medium was watercolor. From 1940 to 1970, he was an instructor of art at the Montclair Art Museum, and from 1947 to 1960, he taught at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts.

Johnson earned a BA degree from Wheaton College in 1928 and in 1933, graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago. He was a member of the National Academy of Design and the American Watercolor Society.

He was also a WPA artist whose post office murals are in North Bergen and Bordertown, New Jersey; Lake Village, Arkansas; and Liberty, Indiana.