Liam Clancy was born in 1978 into a County Tipperary family which had been steeped for generations in horses and field-sports.
His earliest artistic endeavours involved using tracing paper to copy the hunting scenes on his mother’s Victorian table mats, which apparently bear the indentations to this day!
This ability to paint scenes of field-sports must run through his veins almost as freely as blood does with the rest of us, as throughout his youth in rural Ireland he had far more interest in spending time with horses and hunting than in developing his skills as a painter.
From 1998 to 2001 Liam read a degree in Equine Studies at Writtle Agricultural College in Essex, and it was as this time, as an impecunious student who was far from home at a ‘highly social’ college that he realised he could supplement his social life by working on commissions of portraits of his fellow students’ horses and gun-dogs.
During his travels he particularly enjoyed working in the clear, stark light of South Africa, and learned much about using light there. In 2006 he returned to Ireland to try to build up a full-time career as a sporting artist, and the economic recession notwithstanding, there has been a steady growth in demand for his paintings and limited edition prints in the last few years. He takes it as a very great compliment that his hunting scenes have proved particularly popular with hunt servants and those he considers ‘proper hound people’.
To address his growing popularity as an artist Liam is holding a summer exhibition in Abbeyleix to run from June 24th-July 23rd, and at the National Hound Show in Stradbally on July 4th.
For those not based in Ireland or able to attend the exhibition Liam can be contact through Baily’s or through his own web site www.liamclancyfinerart.com for both sales and commissions
The Bailys website is updated daily.
You can subscribe to Bailys here.
To use our Forum you must register for a free account but do not require a paid subscription. Registration will allow you full use of the forum. Visit our forum.
If you already have an account you can login here.