Galway born artist Mary Horan is a full time artist from Salthill in Galway. Mary draws inspiration from the west coast of Ireland and living next to the Atlantic Ocean and Connemara has undoubtedly inspired her seascapes. The natural light is amazing and constantly changing so this together with rugged coasts and the unpredictable force of the sea provides endless inspiration and ideas for Mary’s paintings. Art is her passion and she needs to express creative ideas on canvas. Mary is an observer especially around her figurative work.
In her early 20’s Mary was drawn to writing poetry and has incorporated that material into her art. There is a spirituality associated with it which gives a greater depth to the paintings. Indeed she feels that a part of herself is released into her work. Mary is not inclined to continue painting in the same genre and can move quite easily from seascapes to figurative or to abstract depending on her mood. Her personality allows her to have no fear of going outside of her comfort zone and she really is guided by what is formulating in her inner recesses. Mary was always a very visual person and has a great memory for visual detail and this seems to transfer onto her work with great success.
Mary paints primarily in oils and her skills are self-taught with an abundance of ideas which find their home in her many works. She has exhibited extensively in many galleries throughout the country and has a very strong business leaning and hence she decided to open her own gallery in 2010. It is called Farmlane Gallery which sits very naturally in the middle of Moycullen village beside the White Gables. Mary’s work can be found in many private collections around the world including America, Japan, Belgium, France and Australia.