Markey Robinson (1918 - 1999), landscape, figure painter and sculptor in wood was born in Belfast on 7th February 1918 at 4 Arkwright Street, Belfast. David Marcus was the son of a house painter of the same name. He attended Perth Street Public Schol, borrowing books on art from the public library. At the Belfast College of Art he studied for a short period. He learnt much of his art and colour co-ordination from his grandfather, Thomas Robinson, an established painter & decorator. A primitive painter, a colourful character, a man of great complexity - these are all descriptions which have been used to describe Markey over the years and is regarded as one of the great Northern Masters. As a merchant seaman for two years, he travelled to Canada and South Africa. As a lightweight, he boxed in Belfast, under various names, at the Ulster Hall and Ulster Stadium. In 1942, three of his paintings were hung at the Ulster Academy of Arts exhibition. In 1943 he exhibited at the Belfast Museum & Art Gallery and was represented in 1944 at the Ulster Academy exhibition and also in Dublin that same year at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, followed in 1947 by another exhibition at The Country Shop in Dublin. At this time another activity was the decoration of water glass sets, which he sold commercially and individually. In the 1940's he married May, a portrait of her "Woman in White" hangs in the Ulster Museum. At his attic home/studio, 14 Lyle Street, Belfast, where the decor was French in style and all windows had shutters, Markey's mail included a letter from Princess Margaret thanking him for his gift, and another from Princess Grace of Monaco for the drawings and four paintings which he had forwarded. Through the 1950's & 1960's he exhibitied in many well known Belfast galleries. After a working trip to Spain in 1969, he discovered that his Belfast studio had been gutted by fire and demolished. He returned to Spain, worked there for about a year before settling in Dublin. During the 1970's he continued to exhibit in Belfast and at The Oriel Gallery in Dublin, 1973, holding a show at The Oriel annually from 1976 - 1980. The Irish Independent described his Dublin sojourn: 'For years before he returned to his native Belfast Markey lived and worked in a room above the Oriel Gallery, and daily wandered around Dublin dressed like a tramp, searching skips and rubbish tips for boards and paper on which he could paint.....His pockets would be filled withl large amounts of cash. Markey preferred payment in cash rather by cheque. Dublin solicitors were later to trace eleven different deposit accounts in banks in Dublin and Belfast, containing thousand of pounds. Packets of money were found in his home, 33 Tudor Place, Belfast, where he died suddenly in the Jaunary of 1999' Markey was the greatest phenomenon amongst contemporary Irish artists. A much travelled man, he was influenced in his work by the Incas and the Aztecs as portrayed in his authentic style of bold brush paintwork. But the greatest power he affects is our own genre. Heart-tugging scenes of deserted white-washed cottages, peopled by cone-like natives, dressed in sombre hues as they go about their rural terrestrial tasks, in small allotments and peat-bogs, to the backdrop of the mountains, lakes and inlets of the unmistakable Western seaboard. In a sixty year career, Markey's unique and vibrant paintings fully demonstrate his genius for composition