Samuel Taylor enjoyed travelling around Ulster, painting watercolours of counties Derry and Down, and landscapes of Donegal and of Lough Erne. These he exhibited at the Belfast Art Society in 1891 and at the RHA in 1896.
During the early twentieth century, Brittany became of great importance to his work. He made his first visit to Concarneau in 1911. The majority of pictures which he exhibited at the RHA in 1912, 1915 and 1918, and at the Oireachtas Art Exhibition in 1920, were of Breton subje
cts. Working at the artists’ colony of Concarneau, where Leech and O’Kelly were also based, was plainly of importance to the development of Taylor’s painting. In his series of sunny market and harbour scenes and brightly coloured sardine fishing boats we see his vigorous use of the palette knife showing a boldness and a desire to experiment.
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