Harry Feeney was born in Derry City, Northern Ireland on the 27th August 1956. He grew up through the troubles and seen many things a young man should only see as a fiction story on television. He decided in the mid seventies that if he didn’t get away he would end up in jail or dead. Neither of these options appealed naturally, so Harry took a huge risk and set of from Derry’s Strabane Old Road, without informing his family, he stuck his thumb out and took a lift from a passing motorist who was travelling to Dublin.
Over the next few years he drifted through the republic still unaware of his talent to paint. As many years earlier a teacher considered his artistic attempts as an insult to the teachers intelligence. Such was the time we lived in that a single comment like that would be enough to stop him from painting and taking the teacher at his word, Harry felt the teacher must be right so he stopped and subdued any further thoughts of painting or drawing.
Many years passed but these feelings still persisted and eventually came to the fore. Harry began to paint and it must be said with the help of Frank Clarke he began to excel and find a new lease of life, at last a vital piece of the jigsaw that was missing clicked in.
His appetite for painting grew and grew and he couldn’t get enough through books and by just making mistakes after mistakes he began to realise that he wasn’t making mistakes at all but he was making discoveries, so the word mistake began a new life like Harry and both of them became discoveries. He began painting seriously in 1990 and by 1995 he gave up the day job and began painting for a living which he has continued to do successfully to this day.
He does quite a lot of commission work and one man shows annually.
He got an opportunity to do a pilot programme for television in 2006, they liked him and so the first series was filmed in November 2006. Harry lives with his family near Pontoon in Mayo. He now enjoys teaching the skills he has developed over the years and if you would like to give it a go, Harry would be only to happy to help and advise.
