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25 July 2018.  Benita Stoney is one of six artists selected for the Women on Walls @ RCSI commission. The eight portraits to be unveiled in 2019 will hang in the Board Room of RCSI’s historic building on St Stephen’s Green, Dublin.

When life gets in the way yet art continues to be made

’Emerging Artists’ challenges a cultural fixation on youth

Aidan Dunne, The Irish Times, Tuesday 28th May

As another artist, Benita Stoney, puts it: “For me it was always either words or paint. But the words took over.”

While she made a career of writing, she felt drawn back to painting. Though landscape painting sustained her through difficult periods, it gradually lost its appeal and, embarking as a mature student on a fine art degree, she found her way to portraiture. She cites two major influences: Lucian Freud’s 2002 retrospective and the work of the early Flemish painters in the museums of Brussels.

The careful, meticulous precision of her close-up portraits recall the almost frightening clarity and detail of Freud prior to the 1960s. Her ability has opened up a new world to her and besides participating in many highly regarded group shows, including the BP Portrait Award exhibition, she’s won awards in London and at the RHA annual exhibition in Dublin. Read full article

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