Jeff Johns

Jeff Johns’ paintbrush is extremely well-travelled. Since 2008, he’s created numerous cityscapes, tracing the geometry of countless buildings, bridges and boulevards—and fixing the shifting skies that frame them—brushstroke by brushstroke.

An award-winning creative director in his professional life, Johns got serious about painting as a fine artist once he found his muse in the Cincinnati skyline. His epiphany arrived while watching the city’s flickering transition from day to night, from the vantage point of Devou Park, a Northern Kentucky hilltop mere minutes from where he grew up. At that moment he decided to dedicate himself to capturing the ever-shifting face of cities and making them instantly knowable through his art. He soon learned, however, that a town’s essence doesn’t yield easily to the paintbrush. That takes time. One of his larger canvases usually requires up to 150 hours, over multiple sessions, before Johns feels he’s successfully captured the energy of a given moment in a city’s life. The paintings subsequently find their way into the homes of collectors, many of whom claim they feel a greater connection to their cities, thanks to their daily interaction with Johns’ work.

While painting is traditionally a s...

Cincinnati Academy of Design | 1997 Valedictorian Graduate

Thomas More College | Degree in Business Administration