Summer Kite, Oil on Board, 122 x86,1976 Arts Council Collection

Tony O’Malley

HRHA, 1913 – 2003

Tony O’Malley was born in Callan, Co. Kilkenny, in 1916. During his career in banking, he took up painting at 35 when an illness rendered him out of work for a period, when  he finally retired he began his new life as a painter.In the 1960’s he travelled to St. Ive’s in Cornwall, this was an artists colony, he was surrounded by painters and his work began to flourish with the freedom and support he experienced there. While he was away he remembered the Irish landscape with a degree of nostalgia. He explored this genre of painting, capturing the essence of the places he remembered and the emotion he felt toward them.He later travelled to the Bahamas, a place which had a profound effect on his colour palatte. He divided his time between the Bahamas and Callan, Co. Kilkenny and brought the vibrant colours  to his Irish compositions .Summer Kite reflects this transitional period.Tony O’Malley’s three dimensional work is currently on show at The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny