ASHLAND, Ky. (WOWK) — A community in Ashland is mourning the loss of an art pioneer.

Jerry Johnson, who opened the first ever black owned art gallery in eastern Kentucky, was laid to rest at the Kentucky Veterans Cemetery Northeast on Monday. He was 75 years old.

Johnson is well known for opening the Heritage Art Gallery on Winchester Avenue in downtown Ashland.

His artwork can be spotted all over the city if you know where to look, including the C.B. Nuckolls Community Center, the Black History Museum and the Christ Temple Church.

Johnson was an autodidact who learned much of what he knew on his own, but he did study alongside famous painter Bob Ross for a time in Seattle Washington.

His work inspired artists in Kentucky and beyond to pursue their dreams.

“He was an icon here in Ashland. He truly was. Black excellence,” said Darrell Smith, co-founder and curator of the C.B. Nuckolls Community Center and Black History Museum. “He always wanted mentor young people, especially ones that wanted to paint.”

Johnson’s painted subjects varying from famous athletes to military pilots to Jesus.

But, art was only a slice of Johnson’s storied life. He was also a Vietnam-era Navy veteran, a man of God, and he also held a key to the city of Ashland.

But, it’s Johnson’s art that goes on living forever on the walls, papers and canvases of eastern Kentucky. 

“I will miss him. The whole community will,” Smith said. “All the work that he’s done, it’s still here, and we’ll use that to remember him by.”

Johnson leaves behind his widow Doris as well as nine children and stepchildren.