About Me
I began drawing so early in life that I cannot remember a time before it. My brothers, sister, and I would spread ourselves across the kitchen floor with paper and coloured pencils, lost for hours making pictures for our mother while the BBC drifted softly through the house. My eldest brother possessed a natural gift and a fierce intelligence; the rest of us chased after him, trying to keep up.
School never managed to hold me for long. After my ‘O’ levels at sixteen, I was quietly encouraged not to return. In those days, art was rarely considered a life one could build, and with no clear path before me, I entered the printing trade. Looking back, it gave me more than I realised at the time: friendship, discipline, and a deep understanding of colour and reproduction that few painters ever acquire.
When the industry collapsed in the mid-nineties, many around me moved into other work. I returned to painting.
Over the years, my illustrations appeared regularly in publications including The Irish Times, The Sunday Business Post, and The Wall Street Journal. It was rewarding work, and I remain grateful for that chapter, though eventually the paintings themselves became more important than illustration.
My work has been exhibited at the Louvre Museum and the International Cultural Centre, and is held in the British National Collection.
For me, art is not performance or theatre; it is daily labour, private and continuous. I work constantly through studies, observation, and larger paintings that carry the real weight of my attention. I have little interest in fairs or fashion. I don’t receive the ‘Basic Income for the Arts’. I paint to satisfy something inward and exacting, using the finest materials I can find. If the work speaks to you, I would be pleased to discuss it further.
Kevin
Painting in my studio: A memory of my youth and a poem to my children.
