Brian Whelan |
| Selected Paintings |
| About Brian Whelan and Studio Norfolk |
| Read what Art Critic Sister Wendy Beckett, Martin Boland, Dean of Brentwood Cathedral and The Pope’s singer/songwriter Paul McGuinness say about Brian's work |
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| “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. |
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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 Norfolk county. Since his training at the Royal Academy of Art, he has lived and worked in the East Anglia area for over 20 years.
Some suggest that Brian Whelan’s international travels can explain his strong narrative and distinctive style. But his journey as an artist found its definitive gateway just outside his own door, in the medieval churches and dwellings of East Anglia. For it is the vestiges of an art form that resonate with his Irish Catholic roots, back to a time when there was one church and from it’s painted walls great stories were told.
Whelan’s paintings, 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 Miracle of the Holy House of Walsingham” adorns the entrance hall of a private collector in Norfolk; “Paddy Rolling Stone” is featured on the Shane MacGowan website and “Outlaw Heaven” graces the CD cover of The Popes.
At the invitation of London Mayor Ken Livingstone, March 2007 saw the launch at London City Hall, of the book 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 new 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.
Whelan ended 2008 in Norwich with Spirited Tails at Crome Gallery - a tribute to the important and sometimes fanciful role that beasts can play in a good story: be it Actaeon's metamorphosis into a stag, winged horses pulling Helios’ fiery chariot across the sky or St Edmund's severed head between the paws of a wolf.
2009-10 will be dedicated to an international tour (UK, Spain and US) of Whelan’s work within the London-Irish context juxtaposed against the Celtic heritage.
Read a summary of Brian's education and work, including exhibitions.
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