The Back Lane Painters

Henry Healy RHA formed the Back Lane Painters in the late 1970s. The group of twelve were initially his students, in his studio overlooking Back Lane in Dublin. In the early years they spent two to three weeks each summer painting in the west of Ireland, accompanied by Henry.

Their style was strongly influenced by his direct approach to plein-air painting — capturing the immediacy of the ever-changing light and colour of the west. After Henry’s death in the early 1980s the members continued to work and exhibit together, further exploring the tenets of his approach: a simplicity of composition, and an attention to relationships of colour, tone and texture.