Charles J McAuley Art for Sale at Auction

b. 1910 - d. 1999

Charles McAuley was born in the Glens of Antrim, 1910. He was renowned for his landscape and figurative work. He briefly attended Belfast Art College and Glasgow College of Art, but was essentially a self-taught artist.

James H. Craig encouraged the young McAuley after judging an art competition at a Feis in the Glens of Antrim during his formative years. McAuley better than any other artist, managed to capture the light in the Glens. His first one-man exhibition was at the Master's Hand Gallery, Ballymena.

McAuley chronicled the lives of the people of his beloved Glens of Antrim for over 70 years. Prolific in his lifetime, McAuley produced a tremendous amount of paintings throughout his artistic career. Rivers, glens, mountains, seascapes and rural village lives are painted in oils, watercolour and ink, with a fluidity and instinct that is hard to beat. Light is filtered and stretched across landscapes, held tightly within water pools of rivers, seas and streams. Clouds are tinted with a myriad of colours, shadows cast across the greenest of fields. People are illustrated with humour and tenderness, going about their daily rural lives, feeding hens, gathering hay and netting fish
McAuley was an extremely philosophical man who chose to conduct a private pastoral existence instead of chasing recognition. Only those within his close circle of lifelong friends and loved ones witnessed the many facets and depths to his character.

His works can be found in many private collections and in the Ulster Museum.