Irish Artist J.B. Vallely, a painter and musician, was born in 1941 into a Co. Armagh family which had a strong cultural involvement in sport and language. At the age of seventeen he sold his first painting in 1958. He then went on to study at the Belfast College of Art from 1959 where he was taught by Tom Carr and later at the Edinburgh Art College.
In the year 2000 a large retrospective of J.B. Vallely paintings was held in Armagh. The show was comprised of almost two hundred paintings from different stages of his forty year career as a painter. Vallely’s subject matter has remained linked to the past but his feeling for paint is vigorously contemporary. Rural Ireland, its traditions, music, sports and mythology create strong themes within his work and his interest in traditional culture is almost vocational.
JB Vallely is one if the most ‘in demand’ Artist on the Irish Art Market. His stunning use of colour and dramatic brushstrokes bring life and energy to his work which is perfect for his favoured subject matters, Traditional Irish Music and sport.
