March 29th, 2026Artists of the Central Highlands
Kim Johnson grew up in the small NSW rural town of Murrumburrah, about 150km west of Canberra. When he was 11 he was walking to school with his brother when he noticed a man painting a huge mural on a shop wall. He was fascinated – so much so that he was not watching where he was walking and smacked straight into a light post, much to the amusement of his brother who had not even noticed the artwork before him. Kim, who with wife Jill, are the people behind Signsation, told his story to Donna Kelly.
“I couldn’t wait for the school bell to ring so I could get back to see the completed work. It was a masterpiece. It was around the time of decimal currency and the artist had painted a man holding a one-dollar note in one and a cent coin in the other.
“It was magnificent and I was hooked. When I retold the story to my mother she said the man was a ‘signwriter’ and that was it. That’s what I want to be – a signwriter.
“I was inspired and entered several poster competitions at school with reasonable success. At least Mum was impressed, telling me ‘well you have got some talent, most of this family would struggle drawing stick figures’.
“I met my wife Jill while she was teaching in my hometown, and she asked me to help her paint a mural on a wall at her school. After working on the mural for several days I realised that Jill was quite an artist herself so I managed to convince her that it would be great if she resigned from teaching and we would paint our way around this beautiful country of ours.
“We did this for 12 months. We worked in every mainland state of Australia and after our sojourn around Oz, we settled in Mannum, South Australia painting houseboats and ski boats for 11 years and then it was back to NSW.
“Fast forward 30 years and our three children had finished school and were attending university in Melbourne with no intentions of returning interstate, so Jill and I decided to move to Victoria.
“A friend thought Daylesford was the place for us, and he was right. We moved to Hepburn Springs in 2015 and work started to flow almost immediately.
“We mostly work in Daylesford, Hepburn Springs, Castlemaine, Maldon and Clunes. Cottage signs, shopfronts and murals are our bread and butter. Most recently we have been commissioned to paint backdrop murals for museum displays at the Maldon Machinery Museum. This is the kind of work I most enjoy.
“One of the things I most enjoy about my job is the interaction with our clients, helping them decide what is best for the promotion of their business then seeing it through to the finished product.
“After nearly 50 years of ‘slapping’ paint on surfaces you’d think I would have had enough and I thought so too, so I decided to retire. But I forgot to tell my customers, so here I am still painting, still slapping it on, until I can’t hold my brush steady.”
Above, Kim painting one of the Maldon Vintage Machinery & Museum murals
