HE’ll never go down in history for being a prolific painter, Letterkenny artist Philip Mackey admits as he walks through his latest exhibition Partes Corporis (Body Parts).
Featuring both old and new works the exhibition, which opened at the Regional Cultural Centre last week, continues until January 23.
It’s four years since ‘Face to Face’, his last exhibition, adorned the walls of An Grianán Theatre.
“It’s taken time but I’m happy with the end result,” he smiles.
Working full-time as a Heraldic Artist and Calligrapher with the Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland, (National Library of Ireland), Philip is delighted to get another opportunity to show off his art to a much wider audience.
“Covid was a blessing for me in that this exhibition has been put back that many times that it has allowed me to do my new portraits at my own slow pace of working,” he said.
“I’ll never be prolific but there’s little point trying to change that at this stage of my life,” he added.
Even though he has been given some instruction in life-drawing, Philip is essentially a self-taught artist. Since about 2010 Philip’s work has been steadily gaining more recognition with portraits selected for exhibition in the Royal Ulster Academy Annual Exhibitions on eight occasions and for the Royal Hibernian Annual Exhibitions on five occasions.
In 2014, and again in 2018, he was selected to take part in The Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year Competition, where he got to paint Colin Meaney and Noel Fielding respectively.
“Three quarters of the work on show in the RCC has been done especially for this exhibition. There’s three or four Samuel Beckett pieces and two or three Seamus Heaneys, a few of Martin McGuinness and two Brian Friels.
“They’re all subjects that have been painted and photographed many times so the dilemma, as an artist, it to come up with another way of painting them. I would class these pieces as being between realism and abstract realism.
“I’ve built up new friends since my last exhibition so I decided to combine the older pieces that have not been seen yet with the new work,” he said.
“I’m still doing a few commissions but my bread and butter remains the heraldic art. That said, I’m confident that if I concentrated on the portraits I could still make a living,” he added.
Married to fellow ‘townie’ in Marette Crumlish, the couple have one son Ciaran. A native of Ard O’Donnell, the family have lived in Drumany, Bonagee, for more than thirty years.
Philip’s portraits have been bought by private collectors throughout Ireland and abroad, most notably Martin Gale (Artist RHA), An Grianan Theatre, Letterkenny and by Dublin City University for their Contemporary Art Collection.
The exhibition, titled ‘Partes Corporis’ is open from 12 – 4pm, Tuesday – Saturday and runs until January 23.
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Posted: 9:00 am December 19, 2020