Pat Moran

Unfortunately I didn’t get to an exhibition this time, but as I’m going to London next week (and hopefully a couple of exhibitions!) this should help to fill the void. 

Pat Moran (1961-1992). I remember visiting a retrospective exhibition of Pat Moran’s work at the Crawford Gallery, Cork with my dad in 2003. It made a lasting impression on me because I was so captivated by the look of sheer spontaneity and freshness in all the drawings and paintings on display. It is probably a reflection of the way he lived his life.  Looking at his work is further proof to me that almost any view can be made to look interesting and one doesn’t need to spend hours searching for that ‘perfect’ subject . It is what you make of it, something I need reminding of now and again, and to me he certainly had a talent for making the ordinary appear fascinating in the entirely unique way in which he interpreted every day scenes. They seem to show a deep appreciation for the place he captured on paper or canvas. 

Gardner Street - charcoal 1984

His career was spent in Dublin, Italy and Cork and he did many paintings of Cork City scenes. The same exhibition was shown also in Dublin, where he spent most of his career, and Portlaoise where he was born.

Annaghmakerrig Path,
 oil on paper 1989 (60x50cm)

Gardner Street, Dublin, 
oil on canvas

Bernini Fountain, Rome - pencil 1984 

South Gate Bridge and Beamish & Crawford Brewery, Cork - oil

Italian landscape - pencil on paper 1984  (21x30cm)

"Pat Moran painted pictures and he painted pictures of what he knew and experienced. The honesty to paint cars - no one paints cars in the romance language of cityscape. Giddily leaning lampposts clawing in to blue and green streetscapes - black and white expressions of inner city grubbiness. Pat painted as he lived with vitality and directness, and of course in the usual confusions of our being" (Richard Gorman, 2001)