Patrick Pye
Patrick Pye was born in England to Irish and English parents. He began painting in 1943, first under the instruction of Oisin Kelly at St Columbas College and went on to train at National College of Art and Design, Dublin and at Jan Van Eyck Akademie, Maastricht. While travelling through Europe, Pye discovered Romanesque sculpture and became very interested in Christian iconography, and increasingly the mysticism portrayed in the work of El Greco.
He worked first in painting and print-making and later when he began working in stained glass he sought the spiritual quality of his work and began producing religious subjects. The Catholic church was his greatest source of patronage and he was commissioned to produce stained glass windows for a number of churches throughout Ireland. His paintings portrayed landscapes from his travels in Denmark, Norway and Spain, but it was his paintings of spiritual subjects which gained most recognition. These paintings are often done in tempura and depict spiritual scenes in a humble and a humane manner. His style is of simple forms and application of large areas of pure colour, alike his stained glass windows.
Pye was a founding member of Aosdana and a member of Royal Hibernian Academy. His work can be found at Glenstal Abbey, Limerick; Church of the Resurrection, Belfast; Bank of Ireland HQ, Dublin; Ballycasheen Church and Fossa Church, Killarney. He was awarded a D.Phil from Maynooth University in 2005. His work was shown in a retrospective at the RHA in 1997 and prominently included in Irish Museum of Modern Art's exhibition on the subject of spiritual in art in 2017. Read More
He worked first in painting and print-making and later when he began working in stained glass he sought the spiritual quality of his work and began producing religious subjects. The Catholic church was his greatest source of patronage and he was commissioned to produce stained glass windows for a number of churches throughout Ireland. His paintings portrayed landscapes from his travels in Denmark, Norway and Spain, but it was his paintings of spiritual subjects which gained most recognition. These paintings are often done in tempura and depict spiritual scenes in a humble and a humane manner. His style is of simple forms and application of large areas of pure colour, alike his stained glass windows.
Pye was a founding member of Aosdana and a member of Royal Hibernian Academy. His work can be found at Glenstal Abbey, Limerick; Church of the Resurrection, Belfast; Bank of Ireland HQ, Dublin; Ballycasheen Church and Fossa Church, Killarney. He was awarded a D.Phil from Maynooth University in 2005. His work was shown in a retrospective at the RHA in 1997 and prominently included in Irish Museum of Modern Art's exhibition on the subject of spiritual in art in 2017. Read More
