Born in Belfast in 1937, Professor Harry McMahon has been living and painting on the Causeway Coast since 1968, when he joined the staff of the New University of Ulster.

His art has progressed steadily over the years from beginning amateur to now professional. Starting painting landscapes in the seventies, he became a member of the Ulster Watercolour Society within a couple of years and mounted several successful exhibitions of watercolours in the eighties and nineties. Four of these were based on photographs and sketches made during long distance backpacking walks through the highlands and along the coasts of Ireland.
On retirement from university teaching he undertook degree studies in Fine and Applied Art, practicing in sculpture, printmaking, digital animation and performance at Ulster University. In 2006 he graduated with a B.A. in Fine and Applied Art, with first class honours, before switching back into his first love of landscape painting, this time working in oils.
Moving into his eighties and still venturing onto new ground, he has drawn on past academic studies in physics to explore the abstract expression of scientific ideas, with two recent exhibitions mounted as part of the annual Northern Ireland Science Festival.
Latterly, his attention has refocused on working en plein air and in his Portstewart studio on fresh subjects close to home along the North Coast.