Paul Rattigan: Preparing for his first solo exhibition
Having been tutored by the legendary Harry Kernoff in Dublin as a teenager, Paul Rattigan graduated from the National College of Art in Dublin and Slade School of Fine Art in London in the 1960s. He has a clear recollection of the fork in the road he faced back then, trying to decide whether to pursue a career in fine art or in the commercial world. "I mooched around the art world for a while but I discovered I had very expensive tastes - I liked to do things like eat," he laughs.
It was his classes with Kernoff that brought home to him the realities of life as a painter. "He struggled all his life financially and I think seeing that first-hand made me realise that I wasn't cut out for life as an impoverished artist." A 30-year career in graphic design followed and latterly Rattigan ran his own design firm, Zeus Creative, which for 10 years was responsible for the design work on Riverdance. The lure of painting remained, however, and two years ago he decided to become a full-time artist. "Painting was a cathartic thing for me over the years and it came to a point where I wanted to do it more. I felt it was now or never, that if I didn't stop being a designer, I would always be one. I don't think I could have made the move before now but our three kids are all grown up so a lot of the financial drag is gone."
While the two careers are creatively driven, Rattigan believes there is a purity to painting that he did not find in his design career. "With painting you are your own art director. In the commercial world you have to fulfil a brief and if it doesn't work out you can always blame the client and say the brief was crap. As an artist there is no one to blame but yourself if things go wrong. I love every minute of the process of painting. I love the physicality - design is all about computers now but painting is still physical. I really enjoy knowing each of my brushes by name. I'll say, 'there's Albert'. God, that makes me sound really odd, doesn't it?"
Rattigan paints in his studio in Dublin and also has a retreat in west Cork. "I am very regimented when I am in Dublin, I think because my business habits persist. I still have that routine of getting up, doing a bit, have lunch, do a bit more. In Cork I am as alone as I can be. I don't have anyone telling me to go to bed if I am painting at 3am. It's wonderful. But after a few weeks I tend to get cabin fever." His first solo exhibition opens on Tuesday at John Lynch's fine Georgian residence at No 10, Lower Ormond Quay. "I am very nervous about it. Foolishly, I never sat down and prepared these paintings with the audience in mind, which is very odd coming from a design background where the response from the client was everything. I'm intrigued to find out what people think of it now." In conversation with Michael Kelly.
Viewing is by appointment only. Contact 086-0341479. See www.paulrattigan.com.