Ganly’s practice centres mainly on the development of a narrative through painting, both figurative and representational. He believes that painting has an enduring function as a way of documenting the world around us, sometimes beautiful, sometimes horrific. A lot of the works are inspired by chance encounters such as driving past a lakeshore or a cluster of old buildings. Some of the paintings are more visceral and reactionary, triggered by politics and current affairs, sourced via news images from our world of borders and conflict. Inspiration hails from aspects of the works of artists such as Edward Hopper, particularly his atmospheric realist paintings, or Leon Golub and Brian Maguire for their raw depictions of war and conflict. He works in various materials, pencil, ink, charcoal, and collage for smaller exploratory works. His paintings are often on a large scale, working with acrylics applied on canvas or board. The mood of the subject can sometimes dictate the method. Chaotic or traumatic scenes often transfer into more physically intense application, brushes get swapped for sticks, palette knives or scrapers. He is confident that the physical permanence of painting as a medium has a special role in a world saturated with flickering digital imagery.
Peter Ganly was born in rural Co. Westmeath in 1965. After thirty plus years working in the automotive industry, he returned to education to pursue a long-held ambition to make a career as a visual artist.
