Grahame Booth
Belfast watercolourist Grahame Booth is a Past-President of the Ulster Watercolour Society.   Winner of several awards, including the Silver Jubilee Medal from the Arts Society of Ulster, Grahame Booth was also Northern Ireland winner of the popular Channel 4 show ‘Watercolour Challenge’.  Yet he still considers his chosen medium ‘an unforgiving medium, immensely frustrating when searching for an elusive effect’. On working outdoors he comments, ’The smells, sounds and feel of a subject are as important as the sight of it and only by working en plein air can this truly be realised.’

John Cullinan
John Cullinan studied at Limerick School of Art under Jack Donovan and taught there for two years, after graduation. He later studied under the American artist Paul Brooks and under Michael Dempsey. Several years in west Clare heightened his love of landscape. Now, after retiring from teaching duties, John Cullinan has been able to devote his time to landscape and the human figure. Bold, sculptural shapes, emotive use of colour and a flowing line characterize his painting style. This artist is a founder of Waterford Life Art Group.

Paddy Darigan
Wexford-born blacksmith’s son, Paddy Darigan is a self-taught, self-reliant and versatile artist. From sculpture and ceramics to painting media, charcoal and printmaking, he moves with ease as the subject and his mood dictates. Of his landscape painting, he explains, ’what I am trying to say is, this is the way this place makes me feel, rather than this is what my eyes see.’  A committed teacher and a dedicated artist, Paddy Darigan has enjoyed increasing success in solo shows and commissions.

Cormac Dennis
A skilled artist in a variety of media, Cormac Dennis is a popular art tutor in Ireland and abroad. On plein air work he states, ’As someone who cares passionately about nature and who enjoys the outdoor experience, I can think of no greater pleasure than working within it, particularly in the north county coastal environment that I call home. The birds, the wind, the sun, the rain, the occasional passer-by, the flies that haunt you – these are things that make each excursion truly unique. There really can be no comparison.’

Mary Duffy
Mary Duffy has been an award-winning Performance Artist, challenging perceptions and prejudices for over 20 years. Only latterly has she turned to painting as a means of self-expression – with striking results. ‘When I paint, I feel alive. Engaged. Challenged. I take comfort in my ability to become engrossed in the world around me through the process of painting. My work as an artist is strong, powerful, passionate, spontaneous, vibrant and daring….My commitment to my work requires me to be fearless, to have endurance, to be energetic and really “switched on”…..However, as a disabled artist, painting has always been a struggle. Painting has always been hard for me because, while I love to paint, I find the traditional image of the disabled artist tyrannical…. at the end of the day, I value most highly my enthusiasm for getting out and doing it, in all weathers, despite the enormous difficulties.

Ian Gordon
‘From a land art and conceptual practice developed as a student at  Wimbledon School of Art, London, in the 1970's, I have come pretty much full circle to expressive and figurative  oil painting of  the landscape, generally of Co. Donegal, where I have been  living for over twenty years.  My particular obsession is painting out in the landscape, although I do plenty of studio work as well. I make paintings mostly ‘a la prima’ outside, when weather permits, in one high-energy session with the palette knife and brush on canvas or hessian where the entire picture is created from start to finish in a few hours. ’

Ros Harvey
Consummate pastel artist, Ros Harvey, is an Associate member of the Royal Ulster Academy and lives in Malin, Co. Donegal. ‘Having lived for nearly half of my life in this wild and beautiful part of Ireland, it is natural that I should be influenced by its beauty and ferocity. To depict the moods of the seasons, with their contrasts of colours, has been my challenge over the last few years. I will sketch outside as much as is possible in the changing elements but to finish a complete painting, I will return to my studio.’ Ros Harvey has illustrated six books.

Tom King
Born in Dublin but raised in England, Tom King ran a successful advertising company until the late 80s. Recession and disenchantment with that career led him to rely for a living on his talent as a watercolourist in Norfolk, an area noted for landscape painting. Ten years on, having taken up oil painting, a commission for a series of paintings took Tom King to France. Soon afterwards, King moved to the Lot Valley in France, where he now lives as a painter and designer. An experienced art tutor and regular visitor to Ireland where he has exhibited with success during several Wexford Opera Festivals, Tom King became an elected member of the Irish Watercolour Society in recent years.

Jock Nichol
‘We are so used to looking at images through a screen, working from nature allows a much more direct and intuitive response to a time and a place.’ Born in Scotland in 1962, Jock Nichol trained at Edinburgh College of Art, gaining a BA Hons in Drawing and Painting and a Post Graduate Diploma with Distinction. He has been awarded residencies at Hospitalfield, Arbroath, Tyrone Guthrie Centre, and Cill Rialaig. Nichol moved to Ireland in 1992. He works mainly in acrylics and has work in collections in Ireland, UK, USA and Canada.

David Nolan
Oil painter, David Nolan worked in Los Angeles for Disney before embarking on a career as a freelance background artist and later as Art Director in Copenhagen, Berlin, Oslo and Dublin. Returning to Ireland, government and other commissions followed. Clear colours, telling details and fluid handling betoken an artistic apprenticeship in the USA.  David Nolan’s portraiture and still-life are complemented by plein air landscapes in France, Italy and in Ireland. On plein air painting he says, ‘to endeavour to capture movement and sound on canvas is fascinating.’

Paul O’Kane
Co. Down architect, and artist Paul O’Kane paints in an economical style with decisive colours, making use of scumbles and a strong tonal range. ‘In the summer months I tour around on my Harley Davidson, panniers packed with oil paints and canvas. I have painted “en plein air” in many parts of the world. When the weather is poor, it doesn’t matter where you are. But when the weather is fine, Ireland is as good for painting, if not better than anywhere.’

Frank Sanford
An artist for over 40 years, American Frank Sanford moved to Ireland ten years ago, settling in Kinvara, Co. Galway. In the US, after university and the air force, he studied under such well-published artists as David A. Leffel, Charles Reid and the late Milford Zornes. A regular tutor at the Burren School of Painting in Lisdoonvarna, Sanford reveals, ‘I love to paint in the rain and the wind. I love the soft shadows and the thick Irish light.’ He is adept in oils, watercolours and pastels.