Basil Blackshaw
Born 1932
 

Basil Blackshaw was born in Glengormley, Co Antrim, in 1932, youngest of seven children. Brought up in Boardmills, he attended Methodist College Belfast. In 1951 Blackshaw was awarded a scholarship by the Committee for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts, to study in Paris. On his return to Ireland, he settled in Antrim where he still lives and works. Apart from painting, the other passions in his life – dog breeding and horse training – are great sources of inspiration.

Blackshaw participated at three ROSC Exhibitions: ROSC ’71 in Dublin, ROSC ’80 in Cork and ROSC ’88 in the Guinness Hop Store in Dublin. He has exhibited numerous times at the Arts Council Gallery, Belfast (1964, 1974, 1981 and 1983) and enjoyed many successful shows with the Tom Caldwell Gallery in Belfast from 1973 – 1992. In 1995, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland organized a major retrospective exhibition, which traveled to the Ormeau Baths Gallery Belfast, the RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin and the Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork. A selection of paintings from this exhibition also went on tour to several museums in the United States. In 2002, to celebrate his 75th birthday, Blackshaw was invited to exhibit 38 new paintings at the Ulster Museum. In 2003 a major monologue on Blackshaw was edited and published by Eamon Mallie. Blackshaw is an honorary member of the Royal Hibernian Academy and a member of Aosdana. His work is represented in many public collections in Ireland, including those of the Ulster Museum, Trinity College Dublin, the Arts Council of Ireland, Bank of Ireland, AIB Bank, the Hugh Lane, Northern Bank, the Joyce Museum and the University of Ulster.