Martin Mooney (Born 1960)

1960

Martin Mooney was born in 1960 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

From 1979 – 1980 Mooney studied at the University of Ulster in the faculty of art and design.

In 1980 he continued at Brighton Polytechnic College of Art and Design until 1983 when he obtained a BA Honours in Fine Art. He spent the next two years at University College, London at the Slade School of Fine Art as a Post-Graduate, under the tutelage of Euan Uglow and Sir Laurence Gowing.

At this time he also gained attention from the London Evening Standard’s art critic Brian Sewell who wrote “it was a revolt against the bucket and slosh brigade, against the kind of artist where painting is entirely abstract but entirely accidental. It is almost like a new form of neo-classicism”.

Mooney paints architecture, countryside and still life using honey enriched tones, rich reds and pale blues which can be seen in his carefully placed studies of china pots, jugs and bowls. He lives in Donegal and is at the forefront of Irish Painters of the 21st Century.

Martin Mooney has achieved many awards including the Emily Lucy Boyce Travel Scholarship from the Brighton Faculty of Art in 1983, the Richard Ford Award from the Royal Academy in 1985, the George Campbell Memorial Grant, Arts Council of Ireland, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Spanish Cultural Institute, Dublin in 1987. In 1992, the Adams Salesroom Artist choice of @Artist for Future Appreciation Award, RHA, Dublin. In 1997 Mooney completed ten large paintings for the Merrion ... show more

Martin Mooney was born in 1960 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

From 1979 – 1980 Mooney studied at the University of Ulster in the faculty of art and design.

In 1980 he continued at Brighton Polytechnic College of Art and Design until 1983 when he obtained a BA Honours in Fine Art. He spent the next two years at University College, London at the Slade School of Fine Art as a Post-Graduate, under the tutelage of Euan Uglow and Sir Laurence Gowing.

At this time he also gained attention from the London Evening Standard’s art critic Brian Sewell who wrote “it was a revolt against the bucket and slosh brigade, against the kind of artist where painting is entirely abstract but entirely accidental. It is almost like a new form of neo-classicism”.

Mooney paints architecture, countryside and still life using honey enriched tones, rich reds and pale blues which can be seen in his carefully placed studies of china pots, jugs and bowls. He lives in Donegal and is at the forefront of Irish Painters of the 21st Century.

Martin Mooney has achieved many awards including the Emily Lucy Boyce Travel Scholarship from the Brighton Faculty of Art in 1983, the Richard Ford Award from the Royal Academy in 1985, the George Campbell Memorial Grant, Arts Council of Ireland, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Spanish Cultural Institute, Dublin in 1987. In 1992, the Adams Salesroom Artist choice of @Artist for Future Appreciation Award, RHA, Dublin. In 1997 Mooney completed ten large paintings for the Merrion

Hotel in Dublin.

In 2001 he was appointed official artist for the HRH The Prince of Wales Royal Tour of the Baltic States. In 2003 he was appointed official artist for HRH The Price of Wales Royal Tour of Russia.

His recognition is also seen in the art gallery and auction room sales. Between the years of 1988 and 2011, Mooney held many solo exhibitions in London and Dublin with Offer Waterman at Waterman Fine Art, The Portland Gallery, London and the Solomon Gallery, Dublin. In 2007 in the James Adams’s Auction Rooms in Dublin, Mooney sold 73 of the 75 pieces available even before the show opened on the first night.

Works in private collections span the globe from Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Ireland, Morocco, Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, UK and USA. These private collections include HRH The Prince of Wales, Sir Anthony & Lady Chryss O’Reilly, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten.

Mooney also has an extensive list in corporate collections such as The Arts Council Collection, Northern Ireland, British Government Art Collection, Citibank, Durban Museum, South Africa, Glaxo PLC, Harvard University, USA, Paul Mellon Collection, USA, Ulster Museum, Belfast, Yale Centre for British Art, USA and Delta Airlines.

“Martin Mooney is a superlative exponent of the well made picture in the tradition of 19th Century realism” Aidan Dunne, Irish Times, May 2002