Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy is an Irish-born artist, living on Whidbey Island, just northwest of Seattle. His art is inspired by the beauty of the natural world, influenced by his Irish origins and the eloquence of the Pacific Northwest, where he now proudly calls home.
Born in Tipperary, Ireland, and an obsessive student of art his whole life, Cormac began his postsecondary education by attending the Limerick Institute of Art and Design in Limerick, Ireland, where he studied graphic design, advertising, and painting. He then obtained a postgraduate masters degree in education from Hibernia College in Dublin, Ireland, and began his career as an elementary school classroom teacher. After teaching young children for fifteen years – beginning in rural Tipperary, and later in the San Francisco Bay Area, and finally on Whidbey Island –Cormac eventually hung up his "teacher hat," and dedicated himself to his first and true love: painting.
Although his early years of artistic study in graphic design were primarily spent creating digital artworks centered around photography, these years taught Cormac the fundamentals of the creation of beauty: rich color use, dynamic perspective, deep form, and creative composition. These integral building blocks are all interwoven into his paintings.
Cormac's passion for artistic evolution leads to paintings that are uniquely imaginative. Cormac strives to capture singular moments in time – moments of pure immersion in nature, when one stumbles across a magical scene that captures the breath; moments that remind us of the wonderful awe and majesty of the world we live in. It is the emotional pull of the moment that most interests Cormac, and it is this deep connection that he evokes through his work. From deep oceanic kelp forests, to majestic birch tree woodlands, and magnificent high ranging mountains and their delicately subtle still lakes, Cormac finds inspiration from them all. His imagination and inspiration guide him through nature, searching for those perfect moments to capture and paint.
Although the notion is cliché, Cormac truly leaves a part of himself on each painting he creates. He believes that the arts have never been more important, and that the role of the artist in our society – to bring engaging and thought provoking works of beauty to the public – has never been more important. Not only can an engaging work of art foster positive connections and relationships among people, a work of art that focuses on the beauty of nature, in its many forms, can create for us a luminous reminder of the profound importance of ecological preservation, and of our roles as stewards of our beautiful world.
Born in Tipperary, Ireland, and an obsessive student of art his whole life, Cormac began his postsecondary education by attending the Limerick Institute of Art and Design in Limerick, Ireland, where he studied graphic design, advertising, and painting. He then obtained a postgraduate masters degree in education from Hibernia College in Dublin, Ireland, and began his career as an elementary school classroom teacher. After teaching young children for fifteen years – beginning in rural Tipperary, and later in the San Francisco Bay Area, and finally on Whidbey Island –Cormac eventually hung up his "teacher hat," and dedicated himself to his first and true love: painting.
Although his early years of artistic study in graphic design were primarily spent creating digital artworks centered around photography, these years taught Cormac the fundamentals of the creation of beauty: rich color use, dynamic perspective, deep form, and creative composition. These integral building blocks are all interwoven into his paintings.
Cormac's passion for artistic evolution leads to paintings that are uniquely imaginative. Cormac strives to capture singular moments in time – moments of pure immersion in nature, when one stumbles across a magical scene that captures the breath; moments that remind us of the wonderful awe and majesty of the world we live in. It is the emotional pull of the moment that most interests Cormac, and it is this deep connection that he evokes through his work. From deep oceanic kelp forests, to majestic birch tree woodlands, and magnificent high ranging mountains and their delicately subtle still lakes, Cormac finds inspiration from them all. His imagination and inspiration guide him through nature, searching for those perfect moments to capture and paint.
Although the notion is cliché, Cormac truly leaves a part of himself on each painting he creates. He believes that the arts have never been more important, and that the role of the artist in our society – to bring engaging and thought provoking works of beauty to the public – has never been more important. Not only can an engaging work of art foster positive connections and relationships among people, a work of art that focuses on the beauty of nature, in its many forms, can create for us a luminous reminder of the profound importance of ecological preservation, and of our roles as stewards of our beautiful world.
