Patrick Collins HRHA
1910-1994

Born in Dromore West, Co. Sligo in 1910, Patrick Collins was largely a self-taught artist, although he studied briefly at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin with George Collie RHA.  After working for 22 years in an insurance company, Collins finally decided to turn to painting full-time in 1961. He lived and worked in Dublin for most of his life, apart from a short period of time in the early seventies when he lived in France.  Collins represented Ireland at the Guggenheim Award Exhibition in 1958 where he won the National Award.  A major retrospective exhibition of his work was organised in 1982 by the Arts Council of Ireland and travelled to the Crawford Gallery of Art, Cork, the Douglas Hyde, Dublin and to the Ulster Museum, Belfast.  He was elected an Honorary Member of the RHA in 1980, subsequently became a member of Aosdána (elected Saoi in 1987) and received an honorary D.Litt from Trinity College in 1985.  His work can be found in many public and private collections, including the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Ulster Museum, Belfast.