Francis O’Toole is a Dublin based artist, who has studied in Florence, Italy. At the age of seventeen Francis O' Toole was involved in a near-fatal industrial accident. Over a year in hospital and rehabilitation knocked him off course and he became confused about what path to take in life. Out of concern for her son Francis’s mother suggested he take up painting. At first he was resistant, but he slowly began to work from his imagination. His work initially showed in a gallery in Dublin and in London, however having never formally studied art he decided to travel to Italy where he studied classical techniques at the Academy of Fine Art.
After fours year intermittent study in Florence, Francis O'Toole returned to Dublin. In addition to his representation by Sol Art in Dublin Dublin, his work has been shown in New York, Norway, London, Belfast and Florence, and is in private and public collections worldwide.
In 2014 he showed in the annual exhibition of the RHA where he received the E.S.B Sean Keating Award for Outstanding Painting. He has also recently received the Royal Ulster Academy's Art Collectors Prize and the The L. Cornellissen & Son Award at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, London.
