George Callaghan was born in Antrim in 1941. He left school at 15 to work as an apprentice commercial artist, later studying at Belfast College of Art. George worked in advertising agencies from Dublin to London and eventually in Sydney, Australia. Although Callaghan attended the Belfast College of Art from 1961 to 1965, he insists that most of his skills and discipline he has learnt from advertising. He is a strong believer that no one can teach art because no one knows what art is. All you can teach, he says, is technique - and leave their minds alone. And he contends that he now paints in the style he developed before he received any fine art training.

In 1973 he relocated to Tasmania, where he lived for almost 30 years - recognized as one of the state's leading artists.

He enjoys painting in an almost naïve style - landscapes without depth or perspective, chimneys with identically stylised puffs of smoke and trees symbolised as little green balls on a stick. Drawing, design and colour are finely developed in his meticulous painting technique.

Callaghan counts the surrealist, Escher, as an influence. He has borrowed elements of Escher to adapt to his own purpose: a beguiling gift for symmetry and pattern and close attention to detail.

Music is also a great influence - the musician appears often in his works.

A book collecting examples of his work, "Art Works", was published in Tasmania in 2004 and won a number of PICA awards.