2004 ROSEMARY MULDOON A painter who was inspired by beauty at home and abroad A life of foreign travel and her beloved Barrow were the great inspirations of the painter Rosemary Muldoon (nee Coyle) who has died aged 90. She was born on Mespil Road, Dublin, in 1914, the youngest of nine children. Her father, John Coyle, was a tea merchant from Derry, her mother, Catherine Begley, from Limerick. After school at the Sacred Heart, Leeson Street, she took a BComm at University College Dublin in Earlsfort Terrace. Never one to do things by half, she enrolled at the same time in the College of Art, then in Kildare Street, combining art with enterprise, skills she maintained all her life. Her teachers included Maurice McGonigal and Sean Keating, and she told of how in those more casual days students were allowed to borrow, sometimes for days on end, precious artefacts from the National Museum to use as the subject matter for paintings. In 1942 she married Sean Muldoon, who had recently returned to Ireland after 18 years in Japan working for an oil company. When the war ended he was posted to Yokohama and attached to the occupying US Eighth Army. Here, as in every country where she lived, Muldoon painted enthusiastically, and her work was snapped up eagerly at exhibitions. She was profoundly influenced by all things Japanese and remained so throughout her life, an influence that permeated right into her house where she opted for an uncluttered, simple effect with low tables and ikebana. She often talked of her time in Japan and the desperate poverty of a defeated population in the late 1940s. From Japan they moved to Jerusalem, then Seoul, both touched by major conflict at the time. When the Korean War broke out in 1950 Muldoon was among 800 women and children evacuated at short notice in a cattle boat with accommodation for 12, spending three days at sea before they reached Japan. They left everything behind and were allowed one small bag each. Always elegant, she made sure to bring her gloves, hat and lipstick so she would look her best when reunited with Sean. After short spells in Beirut, Aden and Addis Ababa they moved to Cairo where, as a result of the 1956 Suez crisis, there was another hurried evacuation. Damascus would be their last posting abroad with their two children, Olivia and Michael, and her painting there captured the enchantment of the place, not least of the Aramaic-speaking Christian enclave of Maloula. In 1960 Sean Muldoon retired, and they settled in Blackrock, their first Dublin home together. William Orpen was born nearby, and in later years she would buy his palette at an auction. The couple adored entertaining and needed little excuse to host gatherings like their legendary New Year's Eve parties. She was a natural businesswoman and invested the proceeds of her art sales in shrewd property purchases. Two of her sisters-in-law came from Graignamanagh and she soon became enchanted by the Barrow river and surrounding areas. In 1960 she spotted an advertisement for an 18th-century stonebuilt lockhouse at Ballykeenan, Co Carlow, and bought it sight unseen. It became one of her very favourite places, enjoyed by family and friends ever since, and it delighted her to see Ballykeenan listed in waterway guides as "Muldoon's Lock". She spent many summers there and would put her canvas, paints and brushes in a boat and row out on the river, dropping anchor at various likely spots where she painted a series of delightful Barrow scenes. Harry Boylan opened her retrospective exhibition in the early 1990s in the George Gallery, Lower Baggot Street, Dublin, and she enjoyed every second of it. She preferred oils to watercolours, and her paintings, mainly rural and urban scenes rather than landscapes, can be found all over the globe in private and public collections. She was a polished hostess with a keen eye for what was in vogue and visited post-war Paris, returning with head-turning examples of Dior's new look. She was stylish, vivacious, fiery, generous and hospitable and celebrated her 90th birthday with a suitably lavish party in the United Arts Club where she was a member. She was also active in the Ireland-Japan Society, UCD Women Graduates' Association, the Inland Waterways Association, Trees for Ireland and Cumann Merriman and was a life member of the RDS. She was predeceased by her husband, Sean, and their son, Michael. Rosemary Muldoon: born Dublin, January 12th, 1914; died May 9th, 2004