Still life with damar varnish bottle Painting

I was born in Cork City, in Ireland. It is where I grew up, went to school and eventually entered art school. I began my art studies at the Crawford College of Art and design. I studied there for four years and graduated, earning the student of the year prize. I then started down the road of my art career, starting the year I left college with a sell out exhibition in the Lavit gallery in Cork. In the following years, I continued to develop and fine tune my art practice, while participating in many exhibitions, both solo and group shows. I had solo exhibitions in Dublin, at the Blue leaf gallery and the Oisin gallery. Solo exhibitions in London, at the Barbara Stanley gallery and in Edinburgh at the Leith gallery. At the start of 2012, I decided it was time to take some time out of the practice of painting for exhibition, in order to begin a period of learning. I decided to enrol at the Angel Academy in Florence, in order to learn more comprehensively the skills of drawing and painting, from life. I studied there for three years and upon graduation I was asked to stay on and become a senior art instructor there, specialising in drawing and painting from the live model. I worked there for three and a half years, teaching many students the techniques and principles of life drawing and painting. I decided to leave Angel Academy, to return to the world of painting full time. I continue to live in Florence where I periodically run workshops in portraiture and figure painting. I also give workshops in academic painting in Ireland.