In 1993 Verner staged his first solo exhibition in a local hotel and began painting full time. He was awarded a L.E.D.U. Artrepreneur award in 1995 and since then has not looked back. Over the past years Verner's reputation as a successful artist has grown, he has had a number of sell out exhibitions and has steadily increased in popularity among critics and collectors.??

He travels on his motor bike North and South of Ireland to photograph the landscape for his painting's, returning to spend many hour's in his studio working on them in his unique way. A traditional landscape painter with a modern twist, Verner has created a style that can truly be called his own.

The scenes are built up in layers, first painted with brushes and then reworked with a flat plastic card this process is used through each painting whether landscape or still life, creating a balance between colour, line and structure.??Daphne McGuigan.???

Recently I spent an evening in Verner's studio, the attention to detail within the landscape, which I knew from Verner's older work, had not disappeared but had been transferred to an interest in the effects of light and colour within the landscape itself.

The majority of the paintings seem to concentrate on space and scale, on areas of light falling on the land, on objects and reflecting on water, the painted surface had been broken down into abstracted and hard edged areas of colour. If one looks at a particular area of a painting, it is immediately apparent that these works haven't been made quickly.

Verner seems to have been continually adding and removing layers of paint to convey the subtle effects of light and at the same time creating a highly detailed and marked surface.
Written by Keith Wilson ARUA.

"Painting is trial and error, somewhere between this there is a balance in which a painting will work."

Source:
Website of the artist, Feb. 2019

Verner Finlay was born in 1962 and first started to love art when he won a competition in primary school. After leaving school, he took on an internship with a motor mechanic, sketching in his spare time. Then he started studying in an evening A level art course in Lisburn Technical College. Through this he course, he developed the confidence to create his own style of paintings. As a result of Finlay’s first solo exhibition, he decided to dedicate all his time to painting and was then awarded the L.E.D.U Entrepreneur award in 1995. Verner’s main subject matter is the landscape of the north and the south of Ireland, which he photographs and then paints. His landscapes are built with layers, which portray a balance of colour and structure.