top of page

Shane Johnson Artist

Shane Johnson Irish Artist - Dublin - West Cork

A very old photo - my first solo exhibition in Kinsale, 2000, opened by Pauline McLynn

I grew up on the shores of Cork Harbour and went to school in Cork City, on the south coast of Ireland. After leaving school I went to the Crawford School of Art, and then to the College of Marketing and Design in Dublin to study Visual Communications for 4 years. Illustration was what interested me most. After a few years working in graphic design, illustration, and even advertising, I began to turn my work into original paintings inspired by summers spent in West Cork . The rolling landscape, brightly painted towns and villages, and the deeply indented coastline  featured strongly in illustrative paintings exhibited there from the 1990s. Paintings of Dublin's rather different, but equally inspiring urban coastline soon followed. 

I have worked solely as an artist since the late 1990s. I use my quirky, illustrative style, a designer's sense of composition, a very bold intensity of colour, and often a sprinkling of a sense of humour to capture the essence of a place in my own peculiar way, be it real or imaginary, coastal, rural or urban. 

 

I have exhibited mainly in Dublin and Cork, also in London, and over the years I have had many paintings commissioned, both private and corporate. Some well known admirers and collectors have included actress and author Pauline McLynn, garden designer Diarmuid Gavin and playwright, the late Tom Murphy.  Corporate commissions of note include the 3 Arena, Dublin, Junk Kouture and Fishy Fishy restaurant , Kinsale. 

bottom of page