About the Artist

A passionate romantic, Edmund Sullivan talks with the flair of a poet, hails his fellow man with a tenor's lilt and the robust dash of an actor of old, dressed, like all great lovers, with lavish disregard for appearances. The complicated personality of Edmund Sullivan comes down to one thing: he is an artist - all artist. Ireland is his primary subject matter. It is the passion of his life.

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Edmund grew up in New York City. He inherited a great passion for Ireland from his parents, natives of Derry City and Bonane, Co. Kerry. Rooted in his parents' reminiscences, Edmund Sullivan's Ireland is brilliantly portrayed in his limited-edition prints. In the words of the artist:

"I want to record this small magnificent country before modern man changes her too much..."

After being honorably discharged from the Marine Corp in 1961, Sullivan studied at the Art Students League in NYC under Mr. Arthur Maynard. Thereafter as an avocation, he painted on location along the rugged coast of Maine as well as the Caribbean islands of Jamaica and Puerto Rico. In 1973, Mr. Alton Tobey, internationally-known artist and illustrator, saw Edmund's paintings and urged him to paint full-time. In 1976, Edmund exhibited his first three years of work at a major show in New York City and it was a huge success.

In 1973, Sullivan's mother and his sister traveled to Ireland for a visit with family and friends. When they returned, with a handful of amateur photographs taken from their moving cars, Sullivan saw the truth in those images and fell in love. Sullivan began searching through the archives at the Irish Historical Society on Fifth Avenue in New York City, looking for more pictures and also learning as much as he could about the culture and history of his parents' homeland.

"I wanted to be sure the work I would eventually do would be authentic. The integrity of my work is a very strong thing for me; I must be as true as I can be to my subject, and in this case, I knew it was the beginning of a huge turning point in my life."

In 1976, Sullivan made his first pilgrimage to Ireland. "It was not a vacation for me, but a homecoming. My whole life made more sense to me and it was at that point that I began to fall into spiritual step with who I really am." The Irish-American public likewise began to fall in step with Edmund Sullivan, responding with tremendous enthusiasm to his first showing of paintings that resulted from that trip.

Sullivan is the first American painter in history to focus his life's work on Ireland, and he takes his calling to heart. He returns to Ireland each year, as much to maintain his spiritual connection with the land as to gather more material for his work.

When Sullivan first began to focus his attention on Ireland as the subject of his life's work, he painted at a furious rate, completing approximately 1,200 paintings between 1976 and 1986. All these early works are now gone, sold to the people who recognized his talent as he was starting out.

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"The thing that's most important about being there is to know the feel of the wind, the temperature, the nuances of cool colors against warm, the movement of the clouds and light, the spongy quality of the ground, the sight of the sheep chewing and of their wool caught on the nettles and grass. These are the details that attach to my heart, that make the work so personal and its outcome so much more than just a picture."

 

The fruits of his many trips to Ireland were exhibited in one-man shows around the country. Besides his many appearances promoting Irish Art and Culture, non-profit Irish organizations have raised over $350,000.00 raffling off Edmund's Heritage Series Limited Edition Prints. One hundred percent of all proceeds have helped those Irish in need in hundreds of situations and continue to do so.

His realistic paintings of Ireland have been used on record album covers of Paddy Noonan, Louis Brown and the Druids. The backdrop scenes of Paddy Noonan's video, "Let's Have An Irish Party" were exclusively Edmund's original paintings filmed at the famous Kennedy's Restaurant in New York City.

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