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Hughie O''Donoghue RA (b.1953) Course of the Diver mixed media on card signed lower left h:38  w:58 cm. Provenance: Purdy Hicks Gallery, London; Nicholas Gallery, Belfast (label verso); Private Collection Although born in Manchester, as was his father, Hughie O''Donoghue is considered to be an Irish artist, not least by himself. Born of an Irish mother and of Irish descent on his father''s side, he spent much of his childhood in County Mayo. O''Donoghue studied at Goldsmiths College and upon graduation became artist-in-residence, first at Drax power station in Yorkshire and then, in London''s National Gallery. Hughie O''Donoghue''s paintings are highly abstracted figure paintings, an approach that is said to demonstrate the respect he has in his own practice for the history of art. His method is derived from a knowledge and understanding of the methods of both abstract and figurative painters of the past which he attempts to synthesise in his own work. His father''s experiences throughout the Second World War are given universal significance in his paintings by being melded, either through his treatment in scale and pigment or through more explicit content. O''Donoghue was elected as a member of the Royal Academy in 2009 and is considered one of the leading painters of his generation; he was recently selected to design windows for the Henry V11, Lady Chapel, at Westminster Abbey.