I have always sketched and painted since I was a child, but it wasn't until my early twenties, when I started to experiment with watercolour, that I saw the medium I really wanted to work in. I immediately loved its transparency and delicate tones.
When I emigrated to Canada in 1989, I started to look at the North American watercolour artists and for the first time saw how accurate one could get with this medium, artists such as Steve Hanks and Jack Reid opened my mind to what I wanted to achieve with watercolour. Up to this point in my life, I was a predominately self-taught artist but while living in Canada I enrolled in the Dundas Valley School of Art, (a satellite campus Sheridan Art College in Oakville Ontario). After completion of 3 years in this college I continued to work more than ever in watercolour and in 1996 was invited to take part in my first ever exhibition in the Sigmund Gallery, in Burlington Ontario.
I returned home in 1997 and very quickly saw a changing Ireland. Economically Ireland had "arrived" but with this newly developed wealth, I also noticed that the country, I knew from my childhood, was slowly dissappearing. We all had "stuff"....... but no time. Ireland went and got itself all modernised.
This feeling of nostalgia is behind most of my artwork, I like to re-create a sense of yesterday, a time before smart phones... when you arranged a week in advance to meet your date under Clerys Clock. When people conversed, listened and looked at each other, more than a pocket sized screen in their hand.
I hope you can stop for a few minutes and browse through the paintings on my web page and at the very least, walk away feeling a little better for the experience.
I hope you enjoy what you see.
Seán Curran