Mount Vernon News

MOUNT VERNON — Although he only lived here part of his life, Vernon Johnson considered Mount Vernon home, according to his daughter, Janis. During the period he lived here in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, Johnson executed hundreds of watercolor paintings and studies, several of which remain in the community.

A selection of those artworks has been gathered by James Gibson of the Knox County Historical Society and Kathy McKibben of FirstMerit Bank, to be displayed throughout the month of August.

“Of all the places he lived, my dad considered Mount Vernon his favorite town, even though we moved from there in 1961,” said Janis Johnson in a 2007 interview with the News.

She will be traveling from her home in California to be in town for the opening of the exhibition, which is scheduled to coincide with the Dan Emmett Music & Arts Festival. A reception will be held Friday from 6 to 7 p.m. where members of the public can meet Janis Johnson.

During the period Johnson lived in town, businessman Jim Beam purchased a number of Johnson’s works for display at what was then First Federal Bank. The paintings have remained on the walls of the bank, which is now FirstMerit. The collection includes a group known as “The Four Seasons,” featuring paintings of the Clintonville Inn, the Neff House in Gambier, the Russell House and the General Morgan House in Mount Vernon.

One of the most delightful works is an unsigned study for “Pitkin’s Corner,” showing a busy downtown Mount Vernon street corner jammed with people. The signed version of that scene is privately owned, but the study is just as accomplished, differing only in details. The study is one of nearly a dozen Johnson paintings in the collection of the Knox County Historical Society which will also be included in the exhibition. Gibson, who is director of the museum, said he knows of about another dozen Johnson paintings in town.

“If anyone knows the whereabouts of any other Johnson paintings, we hope they’ll drop by and let us know,” Gibson said.

One of the goals of this exhibition is to spark enough interest to allow the KCHS to assemble a registry listing the whereabouts of the painter’s works. Gibson said the Johnson family believes there are many more paintings in circulation than are accounted for.

Johnson, originally from New London in Huron County, graduated from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and also studied art at the Cleveland Institute of Art. While painting was clearly his avocation, Johnson’s vocation was packaging design. He and his wife, Marcia Hall, settled in her home tome of Mount Vernon.

In 1961, work required them to relocate to Virginia. After retirement in 1982, Johnson returned to painting and ran a business executing paintings of historical sites and house portraits.

Other works included in the FirstMerit show will include such works as “Sycamore Farm,” “Lamb Glass Factory,” “County Fair,” “Old Kenyon,” and a painting of the view of the square from inside what was once Dr. Drake’s office. Gibson said the paintings will be displayed on elegant but sturdy new easels made for the KCHS by George Jacobs.

Johnson’s works will be the subject of the monthly KCHS meeting on Sept. 3, when former Mount Vernon resident and Johnson enthusiast Bob Rock will come up from his home in Tennessee to present the paintings and lead the discussion of Johnson’s works.

FirstMerit will also be giving cloth tote bags emblazoned with Johnson’s “Four Seasons” paintings to customers who sign up for new checking accounts throughout the month of August.