A life long love of wood Michael Casey’s sculptures are in public and private collections at home and abroad. His workshop and studio are situated beside Lough Ree at Barley Harbour in Newtowncashel, Co. Longford where he has worked for the last 40 years.

In his early years Michael worked in Elm, but when the Elm tree disappeared from Europe he discovered Bog Oak, a semi fossilized wood buried deep in the Irish Bogs for thousands of years.

It has been written about him: “There is a stoic philosophy about these art works, one which is in awe of nature and yet seeks to express very human emotions and objects through it. There is a Michelangelesque attitude within this notion: in the sense that the artist is removing the art from the hands of nature, lifting the form from the natural block, and in doing so adding that unique human element which allows these primordial shapes and movements to speak to the public.

Like Patrick Kavanagh, Michael Casey has succeeded in lifting art out of the dark sods of the west and in so doing tastefully combines a Celtic and Catholic mysticism”.

View Michael’s full bog wood sculpture gallery.