Daniel O'Neill (1920-1974)

Susan Stairs comments on O'Neill's landscapes, 'Landscape for O'Neill was emotive when it was desolate, decaying, strange or barren. He did not as a rule, find inspiration in fertile pasture or picturesque vistas. He used, like his contemporaries, landscape as a means to examine and express his own personal consciousness ... Landscape for O'Neill was a vehicle for his love of nature. He found pleasure in all natural forms - shells, flowers, stones, trees - and used them to create compositions of forlorn beauty' (The Irish Figurists, Dublin, 1999, p. 139).