Horse Smithfield horse fair Dublin

Patrick Cahill

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Patrick Cahill has been working as an artist for over thirty years. He began his career as a graphic artist and then spent some time working in illustration, and for the past twenty years he has devoted himself exclusively to fine art.

He would originally have been best known for his very personal interpretations of the streets and buildings of his native city, and most particularly his unique observations of the Horse Fair in Dublin’s Smithfield.

Cahill shows with the best commercial galleries, and his work has featured regularly

in the annual exhibitions of the Royal Hibernian Academy, the Watercolour Society, Oireachtas and the Dublin Painting and Sketching Club. He has had many solo exhibitions to date, mainly in Dublin, and he also shows annually in Wexford, during the Opera Festival. His work can be found in private and public collections, both abroad and in this country, and is included in the permanent watercolour collection of Limerick University.

Watercolour was Cahill’s first love, and he has been a member of the Watercolour Society for all of his painting life. He has won three awards with the Society since the awards system was introduced in recent years, and his watercolour work has been featured in the International Artist Magazine’s “Master Showcase”.

Nowadays, Cahill paints both in oils and watercolour, and his subject matter covers a wide range, including landscape, streetscape, still life and the nude. His painting style could be described as “alla prima” which means “first go”, and he would say that “the marks made are as important as the subject, sometimes more important”. He likes the painting process to show through in the finished painting.