Patrick Hickey, HRHA (1927 - 1998)
Return to Current Exhibition List of Artists
Patrick Hickey, HRHA (1927 - 1998) The Alphabet - P is for Pinemartins, Etching, edition 7/35, 29½” x 22¼”
Patrick Hickey was born in 1927 in what is now Pakistan, and was then a British colony in India. He studied architecture at University College Dublin, Ireland and originally pursued a career as an architect, before deciding to devote himself to his artwork. He moved to Italy to train as an artist and studied at the Scuola del Libro in Urbino, where he specialised in etching and lithography. Over the course of a productive and successful career he produced many series of etchings, such as the “Stations of the Cross”, “The Divine Comedy”, “Aesop’s Fables”, the “Months of the Year” and the “Alpahabet”.
As an artist he was inspired by the rugged landscape of Co. Wicklow, where he lived, and he produced many dramatic large scale oil paintings and numerous etchings of this landscape. A central theme of Patrick Hickey’s work is a celebration of the beauty of the ordinary, that is often overlooked. He has described the creative process as being an almost religious experience, with its “expression of wonder at this unfailingly wonderful world”. His style in both painting and etching shows the influence of a Japanese aesthetic, with just a few key elements placed on a plain background.
As an artist he was inspired by the rugged landscape of Co. Wicklow, where he lived, and he produced many dramatic large scale oil paintings and numerous etchings of this landscape. A central theme of Patrick Hickey’s work is a celebration of the beauty of the ordinary, that is often overlooked. He has described the creative process as being an almost religious experience, with its “expression of wonder at this unfailingly wonderful world”. His style in both painting and etching shows the influence of a Japanese aesthetic, with just a few key elements placed on a plain background.