Shangri-La, 1990, 1990

Mick Rooney RA (b. 1944)

RA Collection: Art

Rooney studied at Wimbledon School or Art from 1962 and two years later entered the Royal College of Art, where Carel Weight, RA was Professor of Painting. He went on to win a scholarship to the British School at Rome in 1969. He has travelled widely and much of his work reflects this in characters and motifs.

Rooney explained that this picture ‘was painted in a rented studio in St. Leonards-on-Sea’ as at the time he was attempting to build a house in London. Shangri-La is the lost paradise as described by the English novelist James Hilton in Lost Horizon (1933). Rooney thinks that ‘perhaps the painting represents an unobtainable ideal!! But only fleetingly.’ Shangri-La is typical of Rooney’s work with its crowded, teeming host of characters painted with great warmth and humour.