Pat Phelan

With the encouragement of his father, Phelan studied at the Waterford School of Art before gaining a scholarship to the National College of Art, where Seán Keating was among his teachers. He worked subsequently as an illustrator and designer with advertising agencies but, having developed a solid reputation as a portraitist, committed to painting full-time. His sitters would include leading political, business, sporting and cultural figures, among them Ben Dunne, Des Smyth, Eamonn Andrews and Maureen Potter. Phelan preferred producing portraits of male sitters, was meticulous in his approach to his portraits, and unapologetic about his use of photographs.