BRIAN MOONEY

A Short Biography

Brian Mooney was born in Peak Hill, NSW in 1930, then moved to Hay, where he spent his childhood until the outbreak of World War II. The family then moved to Sydney and in 1953,  studied in Julian Ashtons art school for a year, studying drawing under the guidance of John Pasmore and Henry Gibbons. Brian began to paint seriously in the 1960s in Melbourne, where he was also very involved in playing Irish and Australian folk music. 

In 1965, Brian travelled to Ireland and stayed twenty-one years in Galway, where he got married and raised a family of four sons. During this time, Brian had a number of successful exhibitions in Galway, and toured Europe and England on eleven occasions singing and playing folk and traditional songs. 

Since returning to Australia in 1986, Brian have had shows in Melbourne and Tasmania and was invited in 2001 by the Galway Arts Centre, to exhibit his Irish and Australian paintings during the prestigious Galway Arts Festival.

In 2004, Brian was invited by the internal committee of the Florence Biennale Art Festival to exhibit his paintings at this festival. Brian also had an exhibition at the Charles Smith Gallery, Fitzroy, Melbourne in March, 2005, which enabled him to go on a 6 week painting trip to the Flinders Ranges. He hopes to show these paintings next year.