Biography

Philip Flanagan was born in Belfast in 1960, and graduated from Camberwell College in London in 1985. In the last twenty years he has gained a reputation as a painter and sculptor, with works in major collections in Ireland, Britain and America.

His first large scale exhibition of paintings in England was well summarized by a reviewer in the Independent on Sunday.

Flanagan’s paintings and sculpture are in the great tradition of western art. His concern with form, texture and colour are part of a heritage extending back to the Renaissance and beyond. His fundamental goal, however is spiritual. ‘I’m interested in the energy of the Fermanagh countryside and want to get across a feeling of calm, of solitude and stillness. Looking out over the fields, the lake, and the islands, it is clear that there is more to the whole thing than is first visible. In my paintings, I want to create a carapace of light and texture that vibrates, that gets across the spirituality of the Irish landscape.
Dr. Jonathan Bell