Mayo painter's remarkable life explored in new book by his son

The life of Westport-born painter Owen Walsh, whose childhood artistic promise took him from Mayo to Europe and the heart of Dublin’s bohemian arts scene, is explored in a new book by his son, Eoghan O’Mara Walsh.

Published by The Liffey Press on November 19, Owen Walsh, Artist: A Tale of Talent and Self-Sabotage traces the gifted artist’s journey from his early years in Westport to a life devoted to painting, often at considerable cost to himself and those who loved him.

Born in 1933, Owen showed remarkable artistic talent from childhood. He won a scholarship to the National College of Art in Dublin before continuing his studies in Europe, where new influences and experiences helped shape his work. Charismatic and fiercely independent, he was determined to follow his own path, but his refusal to compromise would bring him into conflict with family expectations, the demands of earning a living and the artistic establishment.

For readers in Mayo, the book offers an opportunity to discover the story and work of a Westport-born artist whose paintings would ultimately find recognition in the National Gallery of Ireland, Leinster House and the Irish pavilion at the World Expo in Dubai.

Using a fictional contemporary narrator, imagined dialogue and letters alongside events from his father’s life, Eoghan explores the man behind the paintings: a talented, proud and complicated father whose commitment to art was accompanied by alcoholism, fractured relationships and an increasingly solitary existence.

At the heart of the story is 108 Lower Baggot Street, the Georgian house where Owen lived and painted for more than four decades. His bedroom doubled as his studio, with canvases, books and the smell of turpentine and linseed oil filling a room that remained largely unchanged throughout his life.

Beyond its door lay the artistic world known as Baggotonia – a neighbourhood of painters, poets, writers and musicians where friendships were forged, arguments were had and money was scarce. Patrick Kavanagh, Brendan Behan, Siobhán McKenna and Paul Durcan feature in the book’s evocation of this lost world.

Eoghan captures its humour and energy alongside the personal struggles that marked his father’s life. Owen produced paintings of striking colour and vitality, but his pride, volatility and resistance to convention often closed doors to recognition and security.

Illustrated with numerous reproductions of his paintings, the book follows Owen’s story through to the recognition his work received after his death in 2002. It is both a portrait of an artist from Westport and a son’s attempt to understand his father and restore his place in Irish art history.

“My father was a fascinating man in many ways – his independence and pride was to his own cost yet his art is an enduring reminder of his talent and ability,” said Eoghan.

“I wanted to retell his story – the highs and lows – as well as capture the Dublin he inhabited, his Baggot Street studio, the pubs, the friendships, the arguments.”

The book will be launched at Trinity College Dublin on Thursday, November 19, at 6.30 p.m., with Sonya Lennon in conversation with Eoghan O’Mara Walsh and a talk by historian Donal Fallon. It is available for €22.95 from all good bookshops and www.theliffeypress.com.