Martin Finnin
Artist in Residence: Martin Finnin - July
Martin's work will be on display for the month of July with his residency from the 9th-12th.
Martin Finnin (b. 1968, Ireland) is a painter whose work emerges from a continuous process of absorption and release. He describes painting as a necessary act through which accumulated visual and emotional experience can be stabilised and made visible. The need to create has defined his life since early adulthood and was evident in his first solo exhibition in Mexico at twenty-one.
His paintings develop slowly over extended periods through layering, removal, and sustained attention. Rather than constructing predetermined images, Finnin allows forms to emerge gradually, responding instinctively to what reveals itself in the work. Chance, accident, and the physical properties of paint play an essential role, allowing each painting to resolve according to its own internal logic.
Extensive travel and long-term engagement with diverse environments have shaped the visual language of his work, contributing to its sensitivity to structure, atmosphere, and spatial relationships. While his wider practice also includes narrative and symbolic work, Finnin is best known for paintings rooted in direct perceptual experience and the slow transformation of accumulated observation into form.
The Artist in Residence programme at Ballyfin offers guests a unique opportunity to engage with creativity in an intimate and inspiring setting. Throughout their stay, guests can meet the resident artist, observe their creative process first hand, and gain insight into the techniques and inspirations behind the work. Each evening, the artist hosts pre-dinner drinks, providing a relaxed and sociable chance for conversation and discussion about their art. Selected pieces are displayed during their visit, allowing guests to enjoy the completed works as part of the Ballyfin experience.
