Maggie's Garden Painting

I use oil or acrylic on canvas, in a broadly representational but often spontaneous manner which often veers toward the abstract, to create grittily energetic landscapes and still lives and (more occasionally) figurative pieces. A lawyer by profession, I only discovered my ability to express myself through painting in my early forties. Since 2014 I have enjoyed much more freedom to paint as much as I want whenever I want. My work is generally well received but possibly the strongest praise my work has received was from Neill Shawcross MBE RUA who said the following on opening a solo exhibition of my paintings at the Island Arts Centre Lisburn in 2005: "ALL Robert's paintings have the Wow! factor. ... In his paintings he creates a world that is uniquely his own. We are privileged to be able to see the world through his eyes". Though I am currently self-representing I was represented successfully for several years by the former Chrisites Irish art expert Danny Kinahan until he closed his Castle Upton Gallery four years ago on taking up a full-time career in politics. Very recently a high end gallery in New York has expressed interest in exhibiting my paintings and I have just confirmed my own interest in that possibility.