Padraig MacMiadhachain (pronounced mac-mee-a-hon) was born in Ireland and lived for much of his life on the Isle of Purbeck.
He painted widely in Ireland, Cuba, Mexico, South America, Morocco, USA, Western and Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East and Central Asia.
One-man exhibitions of his work have been held in London (17), Madrid (sponsored by the Spanish Government), Dublin, Belfast (sponsored by the Arts Council), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Krakow, Los Angeles, Seattle and Vancouver (2). He was awarded a travelling scholarship to both Moscow (1957) and Poland (1960), one by the British Council and the other by the Russian Government.
To celebrate his 70th birthday, in l999, MacMiadhachain had a retrospective exhibition at The Molesworth Gallery in Dublin, Ireland; and in 2000 was in Fedden's Choice, at Lena Boyle Fine Art, an exhibition of three of Mary Fedden's favourite artists work. In May 2001 MacMiadhachain had another very successful solo exhibition at the Molesworth Gallery, Dublin, of his Irish landscapes.
Prizes include:
1991 Winner Laing National Painting Competition (£5,000)
1992 Winner Daler-Rowney Award, Royal West of England Academy
1993 Winner Laing Regional Painting Competition, Winchester
His work is in many private collections, among them HM Carlos, King of Spain, Lord Briggs, Sir Michael Culme-Seymour, Ronald Alley, the late Peter Sellers, Bob Monkhouse, The Arts Council (Ireland), NBC, Caja Insular de Ahorres de Gran Canaria, Escuela de Bellas Artes (Las Palmas), Hereford College, Oxford, Sussex University, The late President Chernenko, The Bank of China, SG Warburg, Sun Oil International USA, Tosby Investments (Japan), Kobe Steel, to name a few.
Quote from Padraig MacMiadhachain: "I have painted all my working life; I love painting, and I have managed to live by it. I make some good paintings and loads of rubbish too (hopefully you won't ever see the latter). I seem to have two moods in working; my usual love of pale greys and warm blacks that are all around me in Dorset and Cornwall, my lifelong fascination with fishing harbours and all their, to me, lovely smells (which I cannot paint). ...and the colour and buzz of Buenos Aires and their ice cream and its fantastic colours, these bright colours have carried over into my recent paintings made in St. Ives and elsewhere."
