About the Artist

Veronica Bolay RHA (b.1941)

Born 1941, Hamburg, Germany. Veronica Bolay was born in Germany and studied painting and costume design in the National College of Art and Design in Hamburg before studying group-therapy in Aachen University. She moved to Ireland in 1971. Her work formed part of a highly-regarded 1978 exhibition of women artists held in the Project Gallery in Dublin where she exhibited with, among others, Camille Souter and the late Mary Farl Powers. She participated in major group shows in Ireland, Italy and France and had over eighteen solo shows in Ireland including the Vangard Gallery Cork, Mullan Gallery Belfast, and the Rubicon Gallery Dublin. The Paul Kane Gallery  Dublin, represents her work. Veronica has received many notable awards, including the Fergus ORyan Memorial Award from the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1999, the Keating McLoughlin Medal and ESB Award in 2000, the James Adams Salesroom Award in 2002 and the prestigious Liam Walsh Prize in County Mayo in 2005 and the prestigious Liam Walsh Award in 2006. The poet Paul Durcan has written two poems about her work – ‘The Hay Carrier’ and ‘Island Musician Going Home’. Her work forms part of the collections of the A.I.B., E.S.B., Bank of Ireland, AXA., Dublin City University, National Self-Portrait Collection: National University of Limerick, National University Maynooth, Boyle Civic Collection, Irish Life, Department of the Marine, Mayo County Council, Intel and many others. She is a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy and a member of the Board of Directors at the Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar.