Biography:
1952: Born in Ballinasloe Co Galway
1965-1970: Garbally College, Ballinasloe Co Galway
1971: awarded Navan Design Scholarship
1973: awarded a three year scholarship by the NCAD board
1975: awarded a Mural commission by the Board of Public works
1970-1975: National College of Art and Design
1976: awarded a postgraduate scholarship by the Arts Council for study abroad and studied stage design in Salzburg Austria
1975-1990: Rosary College Crumlin Dublin
1990-2010: Loreto College St Stephen’s Green Dublin
2019 Portrait Commission. Neville Keery. Poet and Former Senator at 80
Lives and works in Blackrock Co Dublin
Solo Exhibitions:
2013: Gallery 27 South Frederick Street Dublin 2
2015: Gallery 27 South Frederick Street Dublin 2
2017: Ireland Institute, 27 Pearse Street, Dublin 2
2022:(31st March-6th April) Ireland Institute, 27 Pearse Street, Dublin 2
Group Exhibitions:
1988: Stone Gallery, Spiddal, Co. Galway
1991: Oireachtas Exhibition, Dublin
1991: RHA Annual Exhibition
1992: RHA Annual Exhibition
2013: Open Window Gallery, Rathmines, Dublin
2013: The Doorway Gallery, South Frederick Street Dublin
2019: RHA Annual Exhibition
Inspired by the poetry of the late Patrick Kavanagh, Declan’s paintings explore the sense of wonder in the ordinary and everyday in both still life & figurative paintings. His work features found and discarded everyday objects from his household - including coloured cartons, household sponges, toothpaste boxes, food storage containers, coloured glass bottles, etc. His paintings explore all colouristic possibilities with these seemingly mundane objects.
Before commencing painting, Declan builds a multi-layered pop-up dynamic structure of objects. Influenced by his environment and love of walking, the structures are layered similarly to the jagged rocky coastlines in Western Ireland close to where he grew up as a young boy and the hundreds of shipping containers stacked in Dublin port, a city where he has lived for his adult life. Working primarily in the medium of oil paint on linen canvas, his paintings explore light, structure, form and rhythm using built up layers of colour and tone.
Dispensing with preparatory drawings, Declan makes all his alterations and modifications directly on the linen surface of the canvas. He wipes away fluid oil paint with a cloth and reworks an area of the painting to correct and modify it until finally a satisfactory framework composition is achieved. This will be worked on and developed into the final painting.
In his earlier paintings, Declan enjoys looking at, perceiving, and expressing the shimmering effects of light on glass. He is interested in observing how forms looked at through glass become distorted, transfigured and abstracted. Looking through glass, the colour effects become wonderful and enchanting. The visual refraction of light on forms is exciting and captivating.