Reflections Gallery
Welcome to Reflections, a gallery dedicated to showcasing the wonderful paintings of John Johnson.
John was a well-known Irish artist from the North Coast of Ireland who spent much of his time creating beautiful works of art while running Reflections Gallery situated first in Portrush and later in Coleraine, John's home town.
This website is a tribute to his art and legacy, and we are thrilled to share his story and works of art with the world.
Our gallery includes a variety of paintings, each with its own unique story and inspiration. We hope you enjoy exploring his art and discovering the beauty and meaning behind each piece.
We hope that John's work inspires you as much as it has inspired us.
John Johnson
1957 - 2019
John's interaction with texture, light and colour became his language of expression, a conversation with nature, giving his paintings a visible energy, a tangible pulse. He uniquely captures a depth of feeling and physicality that enhances and imbues his subject matter.
The essence and spirit of place are conveyed in his landscapes, he knew his beloved North Coast well, as he did the villages in the South of France that he continued to connect with so vividly. Through his understanding as an artist, we are given a unique glimpse into another world; a world beyond the descriptive, what the eye sees and the heart feels, the Celtic dawn paintings are a fine example of his insight.
John brings to us a new representation of the familiar, he encourages us to look again, to see beyond, to reimagine, to see into and to enquire. This is a gratifying interaction with the seen, a fresh perspective via the artist's creativity bringing with it a sense of wonder, helping us to experience that sense of wonder at our point of connection.
John was a creative outsider, an innovator and one of a kind. He was a self taught original, his creativity was a pilgrimage of exploration, he painted what he felt, rather than what he saw. Becoming totally immersed with his subject, resulting in an expression that is intimate, timeless, and universal. From 2005 -2019 John also set up and ran his gallery 'Reflections', first in Portrush and then in Coleraine. This was another distinctive part of John's vision as a painter, to connect artists with the public directly.
It is through the unique combination of these qualities that we have this engaging legacy. An artist who believed in sharing with others the wonder he experienced in the art of seeing. For John seeing was believing, creativity was the process of having ideas that contained great value, his work was motivated by a desire for virtue, a democracy of seeing. We are thankful and richer for John's inspiring vision.
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Dr. Jeannie McCollum - Lecturer in Art History, School of Art and Design, North West Regional College