Seán Boylan Portrait

2020 has very much been all about supporting local. During lockdown we all realised the importance of celebrating and shopping local. After honouring our frontline workers and deservingly so, I took the opportunity to celebrate a local hero. As a Meath football fan my decision was made easy and not only because this man is a local hero but he is a national GAA legend. The man I chose to honour was Seán Boylan.

Seán is such a big personality and an all-round amazing human being, someone that I have huge admiration and respect for, like so many of us do. I had never met Sean but as a child of the eighties I felt I knew him as he was such a big part of our lives growing up. As a Meath fan he gave us amazing memories that we will always cherish.

After making the decision to paint Seán, I took out all my old Meath books to do my research. I did lots of sketching beforehand to figure out his bone structure and to study his characteristics. Seán has such a distinctive smile and I always remember those smiling eyes, a magical twinkle in them. He oozes positivity and it felt fitting to paint him in bold colour. It was important for me to try and capture some of that amazing personality. My overall objective was to create a painting which would evoke so many happy memories for those of us who experienced those glory years!

I felt so privileged to have met Seán and presented it to him. What an honour to meet such a legend. Sean was so humble and such a gentleman. 

Seán is an ambassador for the Meath Hospice so in the spirit of supporting local I gave 100% of the sale of two of the framed prints signed by Seán himself to this worthy cause. I only have 6 signed copies available. I also have a limited number of A4 and A3 unsigned prints and 10% of every print sold again went to The Meath Hospice in January 2021.

I managed to donate €1050 to this worthy cause.