Jeff Johns is an acclaimed neo-impressionist painter based in Northern Kentucky. His paintings featuring the natural beauty of his home state have appeared in galleries throughout Ohio and Kentucky.
Upon his first visit to Kauai, in late 2012, he immediately fell under the spell of the island’s distinctive flora, especially the native hibiscus. So captivated was he by the flower, he snapped some 15 hundred—yes, hundred—digital photos of the bold blooms during his stay. Yet when he returned home, he discovered that not even the camera’s mega-pixel lens could capture the flower’s beauty.
With the hibiscus still emblazoned in his mind’s eye, he turned to his paints and canvas to render its vivid essence. The result is a limited-edition series of paintings that convey the flower’s elegant beauty in rich hues and thickly applied brush strokes.
“Nothing can compare to actually being on the island,” says Johns. “But I wanted everyone to have the opportunity to bring a little bit of paradise home with them.”