Biography

Markey Robinson was born in Belfast in 1918. The son of a house painter, he attended Perth Street Public Elementary School, studied for a time at the Belfast College of art and visited Paris on a number of occasions. He drew upon his extensive experiences for the diversity of subjects and ideas which he portrayed throughout his life.

Markey was a primitive painter, a colourful character, a man of great complexity; are all descriptions which have characterised Markey over the years.

Markey's landscape is probably the work for which he is best known. It is an area which he has worked on as consistently as that of still-life, clown and figure studies. Like all of the Figurists, Markey paints from memory and mind. It is interesting to note Markey's change of palette in relation to the different places he is painting. His Irish landscape is cold, damp and misty, reflected in colours of grey, blue, green and white. His Spanish scenes are executed in vivid, hot and vibrating colours of red, orange, electric blue, pink and yellow. Like George Campbell, who used varying palettes for his Irish and Spanish works, so Markey brings about an atmosphere through the use of colour and tone.