Barry Looney was born in Reid Square, Cork City, Ireland in 1947 and was educated at Greenmount National School. He left school on his fourteenth birthday to serve an apprenticeship in glazing where he learnt to cut and glaze, assemble leaded lights and stain glass windows to fit in various churches and hotels throughout the republic of Ireland, hence his love of colour and composition which he carried to a further and higher level when he started painting.

Barry has no formal training in Art so it allowed him to develop his own style and technique which can be seen in his many paintings which include various subjects from Landscape to informal paintings of everyday life in London, Paris, New York, Cape Cod and the Aran Islands County Galway, Ireland.

The landscapes of the Aran hold a particular affinity for Barry. He has visited and fallen in love with the islands over the years and this allowed him a unique insight into them and the people which have subsequently become the subject of his many paintings.

Barry is unique in that he has worked in London for the past 34 years on building sites and as a maintenance and still manages to find time to turn out such impressive paintings in his studio. His second love is Folk Music, he is an accomplished Mandolin player, guitarist and he also sings.

Very rarely has his work come on the market but a rare chance to see his paintings will come up in the near future with a one man exhibition in London. The gallery and date will be posted on the site, and he will exhibit 78 paintings which were painted over many years and travels around different locations. He uses oil paints as his primary medium and his canvases vary in size.

The last exhibition which Barry held was organised solely by him and his wife and was a complete success with almost all of his paintings there being sold

Over the years he has had many commissions which are now in private collections, in America, France, England and Ireland

Barry lives with his wife Mai and daughter Fiona in Barking, Essex where he has his studio