“The Magical Imagineer” - an exhibition demonstrating the genius of the late Gordon Johnson, Enniskillen artist, model maker, writer and cartoonist - officially opens at Enniskillen Castle Museums this weekend.

The official launch will be performed this Saturday afternoon by Dr. Jonathan Bell, who had been Head Curator in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, and all of Gordon’s family will be at the launch of the event, which is set to run until the end of this month.

His children, Rachael, Matthew, Katie and Jason, and his granddaughter Aoife have written pieces about what it was like growing up with Gordon, and they are featured in the show. “They all got something different from him which was really nice,” believes Toni.

Gordon’s first solo exhibition, which covers all aspects of his work, it is very important for the family. “It’s lovely for Enniskillen to see what he could do, apart from his painting and his model making,” feels Toni.

She points out that he had also been a writer and he wrote about his travels and he also wrote his way through cancer. Displays of his writings, including a collection from A Traveller’s Tale (which were published in The Impartial Reporter) are on show.

A former Head of the Art Department at Enniskillen Collegiate Grammar School, prior to taking early retirement from teaching, his talents extended to be being a cartoonist and he completed Collegiate cartoons of Suprema Collegia, a model created by Gordon and described by his wife Toni as ‘the forerunner’ to Lara Croft!

A delightful quirky model, Suprema Mobile Beauty Bus shows Collegiate girls in the engine room working and driving the bus, while all sorts of beauty treatments are underway.

Never shown in Fermanagh before are his immensely detailed Titanic models, which like the majority of the modelmaker’s work can only be described as amazing; the artist himself is actually featured as one of the models as he stands alongside Elizabeth Taylor! The Titanic displays are among a number to have come from the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and they were in America, where they were very well received.

A model entitled ‘The Last Bus’ - beautifully captures the last bus home in the evening in Belfast during the fifties and sixties; in fact, such is the intricate detail that one woman can be seen repairing her tights with nail varnish!

Like quite a few of Gordon’s models, ‘The Bianconi Long Car’ features familiar faces. Among the passengers is his wife Toni, who had been instructed by her husband to ‘make that face when the children do something you do not like!’ Their daughter Katie is one of the models, while the driver is Richard Pierce and also on board are Dr. Jack Gant and his wife Joan Trimble and Pam and Wilfie Greene.

The model Claddagh Ballet depicts ballet dancers, inspired by the water coming down at Claddagh Glen. “You can see people in that,” he said.

Mumming models have been loaned by Jim Ledwith and the Aughakillymaude Centre, which houses an impressive mumming exhibition by Gordon.

Hanging from the ceiling is an old flying machine with a lady beautifully dressed on board, which again demonstrates Gordon’s eye for detail, while there are portraits and paintings including Tiger Tiger and Upper Lough McNean.

An RTE Nationwide video reports on the train ‘Myrtle’ which is also on display. Gordon went to Cork to see Rachael graduating and Toni rcalls that he brought back iron wheels. “On the way home he said he would build a train,” remembered Toni. On board are familiar faces and like so many of Gordon’s models, he brings in various items from around the home such as brass knobs, which Toni discovered had been taken off the bed!

Quoting from her son, Toni smiles as she said Gordon ‘was the only man who would go to the dump with nothing and come back with a full trailer!’ Eager to share Gordon’s work, Toni has given pieces from around his home to Tom McGowan of The Ceili House, where he now has staged a small exhibition.

Thinking of the legacy he left, she felt it was a shame not to let other people see it and share it as well. All the family became involved in preparations for the exhibition, which Toni felt was very good her and very good for all of them.

And now when she sees the finished exhibition at Enniskillen Castle, she thinks it is “just lovely” and she praises Colin and Sinead who set it up. “It is such a lovely space,” feels Toni, who said that she cannot praise the museum enough.

Having had the opportunity to view “The Magical Imagineer” this week, a genius is certainly an apt description for the multi-talented Gordon Johnson, who has left a wonderful legacy.

“It is a great legacy and I am very proud of him,” declares Toni, who says “it is wonderful to be able to put something like this on - the museum have made this possible.”