Read what Art Critic Sister Wendy Beckett, Martin Boland, Dean of Brentwood Cathedral, The Pope's singer/songwriter Paul McGuinness and Jeff Frohner, Pastor of Our Savior's Lutheran Church and School San Clemente, California and others say about Brian's work

“Looking at a Whelan painting is like looking at a stained glass window, through the eyes of Bart Simpson.”
Writer and critic
Steven Martin

For U.K. and International sales of paintings and books, for general information and to contact Brian Whelan e-mail Roseberry Crest.

About Brian Whelan and Studio Norfolk

Brian Whelan grew up in London, of Irish parents and now lives with his partner, Wendy Roseberry, in the quiet village of Hanworth in England’s county of Norfolk. Since his training at the Royal Academy of Art, he has lived and worked in the East Anglia area for over 25 years.

Brian’s journey as an artist found its definitive gateway just outside his own door, in the medieval churches and dwellings of East Anglia. The vestiges of the medieval art form resonate with Brian’s Irish Catholic roots, back to a time when there was one church and from its painted walls great stories were told. His works, like much medieval art, depict a sublime comedy of life’s glories and tragedies in both religious and secular planes.

While his painting "The Martyrdom of St. Edmund" permanently hangs in St. Edmundsbury Cathedral and “The Baptism of Christ” hangs at the Puerto Camino in Santiago de Compostela, Spain; “Rock and Roll Paddy” is featured on the Shane MacGowan websiteand “One Foot in the Stirrup and the Other Foot in the Grave” graces the cover of The Popes latest CD "Outlaw Heaven".

As a ‘visionary painter’ (Meryl Doney, curator for Wallspace), Brian’s religious works have recently been shown alongside those of Stanley Spencer, Peter Howson, The Chapman Brothers, Eric Gill and Marc Chagall. Solo shows at spiritual sites include, the Marian Shrine of Walsingham in Norfolk, England (2004), the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela, Spain (Spring, 2010); St Michael and All Angels of Barnes, London (Summer, 2010); Sacred Space of Notting Hill, London (Fall, 2010) and St Martin of the Fields, Trafalgar Square, London (Winter, 2011).

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In addition to painting religious subjects—Brian also feels compelled to paint London, the city of his birth. He has found that only from the safety of his Norfolk studio can he produce these works, as if memory proves to be the only way the vast subject matter can be put into a work of art. He does this, using multi-perspectives and contradictory scales, bending, twisting and organising the urban chaos into clarity and harmony.

In 2007 Brian was invited by the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, to exhibit at City Hall and launch the first book on his work Myth of Return. On the other side of the world, Culture Ireland exhibited Whelan's work in a show entitled "Through Irish Eyes" in Beijing.

Highlights of 2008 include an installation entitled Salvation – Damnation at St. Martin’s School of Art, 16 works of art at the Salthouse Exhibition on the beautiful Norfolk coast and the Roseberry Crest publication of Whelan’s illustrations in King Edmund, Saint and Martyr – a casket of wonders.

2009 launched an international (UK, Spain and US) tour of Brian’s work within the London-Irish context. First stop for ‘The Quiet Men’ was the PM Gallery, the largest gallery in west London, where award winning journalist Fergal Keane opened the exhibition. The second stop was the ‘Celtic Fringe’ show at the Liceo de Noya Institute in Galicia, Spain, where the London-Irish theme was juxtaposed against its Celtic heritage .

2010 is devoted to the official launch of the London Irish Painting book by the Irish Embassy and Irish World Newspaper and to bringing The Quiet Men exhibition to its third stop—Philadelphia—at the Villanova University Art Gallery.

Read a summary of Brian's education and work, including exhibitions.

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