Martin Mooney

Regarded as one of Ireland’s most accomplished fine art painters, Martin Mooney was born in 1960, in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Mooney graduated from the Brighton College of Art & Design and the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art, where he completed his Masters in Fine Art painting. Mooney’s outstanding technical ability, together with his keenness to look to the past for inspiration, has gained him appreciation over the years from a number of admirers including his tutors at Slade, Euan Uglow and Sir Lawrence Gowing. He also gained attention from the London Evening Standard’s art critic Brian Sewell who had written an essay, in 1990 for Mooney’s first solo exhibition at Dublin’s Solomon Gallery and spoke glowingly of this ‘fine painter with a natural intelligence’ who had taken up the mantle of the past. Since his first solo exhibition, Mooney has had numerous sell-out exhibitions in Dublin, London, Toronto and New York.

Mooney has been known to build up his paintings using glazed layers, often bathed in a golden hue. Whether his paintings are set in Dublin or Venice, Gerona or Donegal they all have a similarity. He paints architecture, countryside and still life using enriched tones, rich reds and pale blues.
In an exhibition in 2007, at the James Adam Auctioneers in Dublin, Mooney gave a new desire to paint floral still life and landscapes of Donegal. He wanted to challenge himself as an artist and create new subject matters, which has led him to be an even more accomplished painter.

Now based in rural Donegal, Mooney’s landscapes are informed by his absorption of plein air painting. His billowing cloud formations and insertions of unexpected colour epitomise Mooney’s new relationship with colour and form, along with a new sense of fluidity and freedom.

1960 Born Belfast, Northern Ireland.                            

1979-80 University of Ulster, Faculty of Art and Design

1980-83 Brighton Polytechnic College of Art and Design; BA Honours Fine Art

1983-85 University College London, The Slade School of Fine Art (Post Graduate)

Awards include:

1983 Emily Lucy Boyce Travel Scholarship, Brighton Faculty of Art

1985 Richard Ford Award, The Royal Academy, London

1987 George Campbell Memorial Grant, Arts Council of Ireland, Arts of Northern Ireland and the Spanish Cultural Institute, Dublin

1992 Adams Salesrooms Choice of Artist for Future Appreciation Award, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin

1997 Completed ten large paintings for the Merrion Hotel, Dublin

2001 Appointed official artist for HRH The Prince of Wales Royal Tour of the Baltic States

2003 Appointed official artist for HRH The Prince of Wales Royal Tour of Russia

Works held in private collections in Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Guernsey, Spain, The Netherlands, Switzerland, USA, Canada, South Africa, Morocco, Australia and Hong Kong.