John Kingerlee (b.1936)

The Irish landscape artist John Kingerlee was born in Birmingham, England. In 1982, after twenty years in Cornwall, he moved to an isolated farmhouse on the Beara peninsular in County Cork.

Living amid rugged and wild scenery, the 'outsider' Kingerlee has turned his back on the traditional way of seeing and painting the countryside, preferring to recreate the experience of "being in and moving through" the landscape.

He is one of the most dedicated and committed contemporary painters in the visual arts of Ireland.

Green Grid

Kingerlee's painting methods and materials are both individualistic and perfectionist. He makes up his own pigments and, when completed, his landscape painting may comprise up to 100 layers of paint applied over a period of several years.

He works on a number of oil paintings at the same time, using palette knives to apply colour, including sulphuric yellows, reds, silver and zinc, platinum and titanium and much more.

Heads and Fields IV

John Kingerlee has had a number of highly successful art exhibitions in Ireland, the UK and America. In November 2006, his "Grid Composition" was sold at Sotheby's in New York for a record $156,000.

More Information About Contemporary Visual Arts

• For details of other modern landscape painters, see: Irish Artists: Paintings and Biographies.
• For more about contemporary art in Ireland, see: Irish Art Guide.

• NOTE: To update John Kingerlee's biography, click Here.