Ciaran Clear competed in the painting section of the arts competition at the 1948 London Olympic Games, exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Born John Patrick Ciaran Clear in Dublin, he was largely self-taught as a painter and became best known for his dramatic moonlit seascapes of his native Rush in north County Dublin and of Connemara, drawing inspiration from artists including Van Gogh. He exhibited at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art and the Royal Hibernian Academy, and in 1963 was a founding member of the Fingal Artists Group alongside fellow Olympian Maurice MacGonigal, along with Fergus O'Ryan, Bea Orpen, Patrick Leonard and Tom Nisbet, a collective formed to bring art to wider audiences through exhibitions across Ireland. He was also a keen musician. His first solo exhibition was held at the Goodwin Gallery in Limerick in 1962, and his last in Dublin in 1999, the year before he passed away.
Arts
