About Vicki Crowley, irish artist, Galway based Irish Artist

Vicki in Feral Mood Vicki Crowley was born in Malta and was educated there and in England.

She trained in architectural drawing following which she travelled extensively in Europe and Africa where she lived and worked.

Having spent part of her early childhood in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Benghazi in Libya where her family had established businesses, she was already familiar with the continent of Africa where she eventually went to reside and work in Sierra Leone and Cameroon, West Africa with her Irish husband.

She returned with her family to Ireland in 1970 and she established a studio in Barna from where she works.

In the ensuing years, Vicki Crowley's work has gone through many changes. She has worked on a variety of themes and locations and experimented with different media. Vicki Crowley has exhibited widely in Ireland and abroad including a solo show in the European Parliament in Strasbourg and in the Sultanate of Oman. In recent years she has gained a considerable reputation or her very vivid paintings on silk. Her paintings are included in collections throughout the world including National Museum Malta; Municipal Collection, Cabildo of Santa Cruz Tenerife; Galway County Council; Galway City Hall; Allied Irish Banks; Bank of Ireland; Great Southern Hotels; Croke Park; GlenEagle Hotel, Killarney and Kerry County Council.

For many years now Vicki has been going on treks in different parts of the world to raise funds for the National Council for the blind. She owes so much to her eyesight in her work, she wishes to return something to the unsighted. She values the time she has spent guiding the blind on these treks, and explaining what lay before them. In this way the essence of the image is firmly embedded in her mind, before emerging on canvas. She always keeps a journal on her travels, and makes sketches, but her final works are drawn from memories and impressions of the various locations. Her keen observation, her study of local customs and her mingling with the indigenous peoples has given her a depth of vision of her subjects as was seen in her recent exhibitions. One such exhibition was entitled 'Synchrony' because of the underlying rhythm of the dance series; Tango from Argentine, Southern Pacific Dancers and Debating Monks of Tibet whose age old gestures are strangely dance- like, and also because people all over the world are essentially doing the same things simultaneously in the colourful business of living.

Excerpt from “Proud and Upright Men” Exhibition Catalogue by Tom Kenny - Kenny Gallery

“Few people know much about the face behind the face, which is what makes portrait paintings such a difficult art form. The artist needs to be sympathetic, to have an instinctive felling for character, to be able to construct an understanding of the sitter. Portrait painting is not about recording someone’s features, it is being able to read “The mind’s construction in the face”.

Vicki Crowley is a hard working realist who is interested in people. She has no produced a remarkable body of paintings which are direct and upcoming. They are warm but not sentimental, simple in tone and composition.

Many people believe that the best way to capture the spirit of a place on canvas is to paint its people. Vicki Crowley has presented us with the rich tapestry that is Tuam in a unique, personal and highly successful way.”

Frank Lewis (Frank Lewis Gallery) on Vicki's Exhibition titled May Flowers (2010)

“ Spring flowers introduce the exotic to a grey world. Vicki Crowley's painting on silk bring a regal dimension. In 'Dream Vase: Lullaby to a Kingfisher', the luxuriant richness of the colours of bird and flower show that there is an extraordinary world in our midst - if we take the time to look. While these exotica are dimensions of life close to all of us they have a heightened focus when our eyes are drawn to the spectacularly tropical in far away places ... especially if there is a whif of danger ... places like 'Aggie Grey's Garden, Samoa'”.