Hugh McMahon
Biography
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Hugh McMahon sketching from source
I was born in Limerick in 1976, and brought up in Coonagh on the north side of the city. I attended school in Ardscoil Ris, and afterwards went on to study in Limerick School of Art & Design where I received a BA in Fine Art Painting in 1998. Afterwards, I spent a number of years travelling in Australia, South East Asia, Africa, India and around Europe. On returning home, I became a member of Contact Studios, Limerick, where I helped organize and contribute to a number of group shows locally and nationally. I also work as a community artist, facilitating art classes in adult education, psychiatric hospitals, elderly day care, and local youth clubs. I have also experience teaching art in secondary school and at third level. In June 2006, I received a Higher Diploma in Art and Design Teacher Training from Limerick School of Art & Design.
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With Mayor Diarmuid Scully at the opening of the 'Bringing it all Back Home' Art Exhibition 		Artist's Statement
My art is figurative painting, which is immediately recognizable. The subject matter is locations and scenery which carry a personal significance. The challenge that I set for myself is to create something extraordinary from the most mundane everyday sights. There are cows grazing in fields, suburban development, industrial building and local farmland. There is a strong emphasis on drawing in the paintings, to sketch out the scene for the viewer. Incorporated into this, are elements of action painting; dripping and splashing the paint. There is also a use of collage, pasting commercial posters and magazines into new scenarios. My work is very much in the tradition of Irish landscape painting, but offer a new perspective on that tradition. The paintings are accessible, but they are also challenging, unusual, even disorientating to the viewer. Not only is there a physical location represented, but I am also trying to impart an internal sensation of experience onto the viewer.