Niall's work focuses on light and space in landscape. He constructs images in a deliberate and pedantic way with the composition and mark-making thought out. He uses rules, stencils and formal hatching. His work displays an untraditional approach to landscapes, hiding things behind distractions interference and motifs.
Niall's images have a sense of the familiar yet are not real, it is more a magic realism. He see's his images as events; a gust of wind or an artist observing dawn. Although he lives in a remote and beautiful landscape, the idea of merely recording this holds no interest. The sentiment in his work is about the physical nature of being in a place.
A full time printmaker since 1990, Niall learned how to etch from James McCreary ARE at Graphic Studio Dublin and spent 14 years working there editioning prints and running etching classes for beginners and professional artists. He was a director there between 2001 and 2006 and was involved in the creation of many projects including Art into Art, National Gallery of Ireland and Holy Show, Chester Beatty Library. He set up Cló Cill Rialaig a print workshop for the artists retreat at Cill Rialaig, Ballinskelligs in 2007.
