Basil Blackshaw

Basil Blackshaw was born in Glengormley, Co. Antrim and studied at the Belfast College of Art from 1948 to 1951. In his year of graduation he won a travelling scholarship which enabled him to spend a year in Paris. He has exhibited regularly since 1952 and a major retrospective, representing his painting over a fifty-year period, was held in 1995; a selection from this is currently touring North America. Throughout his career he has painted landscape which has been characterised by a richness of colour and texture and a strong appreciation of line. Blackshaw also paints portraits, nudes and animals. Animals, particular horses and dogs, are a constantly recurring theme in his work, linked to his rural upbringing. He has always lived in the countryside where, like his father before him, he has been professionally engaged in training horses and dogs, Foxhunting, horseracing and the illegal sport of cockfighting are all aspects of Irish country life which are deeply familiar to Blackshaw and have provided him with the insight needed for so accurately capturing the character of these creatures.