Paul Christopher Flynn - Artists :: Gallery 13

Lately, while making landscape paintings, I began to consider the idea of human presence in my work. I thought of various ways in which, without actually portraying a house or a figure, I might include evidence of a man’s involvement with the land and while the problem remains, certain images have evolved as a result. These images are part of a continuing exploration of memory, both actual and primal – an evocation, rather than a description of physical presence, a sense of places and things which predates a language to describe them. It is my wish for these new paintings that each finds a viewer who can see something of his or her own journey in the image.

I invoke, rather than explain the land. It is my ambition for my paintings that they become centers of calm in the spaces in which they are hung, points from which the viewer may begin a contemplation of his own inner landscape.

Paul was born in Dublin in 1963. After studying at the National College of Art and Design, he moved to the United States in 1986 and lived there for seventeen years.

In 2003, he returned to the live in Ireland and it was a chance encounter with one of the artists at the Peoples’ Art Exhibition in Dublin’s St. Stephen’s Green which convinced him to resume painting after a twenty year lapse and display his work to the public.

Initially working in a representational manner, Paul swiftly resumed the investigation of image and technique he had abandoned nearly two decades ago, producing muted, gestural landscapes that immediately resonated with viewers. In Paul’s words he intends to “invoke, rather than explain the land. It is my ambition for my paintings that they become centers of calm in the spaces in which they are hung, points from which the viewer may begin a contemplation of his own inner landscape.

Paul’s enigmatic paintings quickly got noticed and at his first exhibition, a private group show in Dublin, the seven paintings he had submitted sold within minutes of opening. This was followed by a two person exhibition in The Oliver Gormley Gallery in Belfast, Ireland in February of 2005. His debut solo exhibition in the Gormely Gallery in Dublin, in February 2006, sold out from the catalogue before opening.This exhibition took place a stone’s throw away from the railings of St. Stephen’s Green, where just over two years ago, he had first shown his paintings.In those two years, his paintings have been acquired by Ireland’s Office of Public Works, multinational corporations, including a specially commissioned nine foot long canvas for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel group and by celebrities such as actor Colin Farrell. In September of 2007, Paul’s first solo exhibition outside Ireland, in Beijing, was opened by Ireland’s ambassador to China – this sold out exhibition has placed Paul firmly on the international stage.

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