[2] Together with Salome, they traveled to give educational lectures on the arts and created two private art schools, the Ralph Johonnot Studio in Richmond, California and Johonnot Summer School of Design and Hand Work in Pacific Grove, California.
[3][5] In 1906–1907, Ralph and his brother Carl traveled to England and France to study painting.
[4][8] Other students of Johonnot's included Nell Choate Jones,[9][10] Lydia Bush-Brown Head,[11] Daisy Marguerite Hughes,[11] Maude Kerns,[12] Frank Ingerson,[13] Marjorie Hodges Doolittle,[3] Grif Teller,[14] and many others.
[4] The family moved often between 1916 until 1927, between the cities of Pacific Grove and Carmel Highlands in Monterey County, and Pasadena in Southern California and various other places where they hosted lectures and classes on design but they maintained a residency in Pacific Grove while traveling.
[4] By the 1920s, Johonnot's traveling lectures started to be more focused on the study of color, as well as interior decoration of the home.