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Shane Johnson grew up on the shores of Cork Harbour and went to school in Cork City, on
the south coast of Ireland. After leaving school he 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 him most. After a few years working in graphic design,
illustration, and even advertising, he began to turn his 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.
He has worked solely as an artist since the late 1990s. He uses his 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 his own peculiar way, be it real or
imaginary, coastal, rural or urban.
Shane has exhibited mainly in Dublin and Cork, also in London, and over the years has 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.
