Benita Stoney (b.1954) is an award-winning portrait artist based in Co. Mayo. Since graduating from Galway Mayo Institute of Technology in 2006, with a BA in Fine Art, she has exhibited widely in both Ireland and the UK. During her studies, portraiture came to dominate her practice. Stoney’s work has been selected for the prestigious BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London; for the Davy Portrait Award, Belfast and Dublin; and, most recently, for the Hennessy Portrait Prize Shortlist at the National Gallery of Ireland (2017). She won the Changing Faces Award (2011) at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Jorgensen Fine Art Award (2007) at the Royal Hibernian Academy, where she has exhibited annually since 2004. Selected exhibitions include a solo exhibition Custom House Studios, Westport (2010), ‘Emerging Artists’, The Dock, Carrick on Shannon (2013) ‘Pathways’ at the Leinster Gallery, Dublin (2014), Mystery Portraits Gala, National Portrait Gallery, London (2014, 2017). Besides numerous private commissions, her work is held in the National Self Portrait Collection of Ireland, and in the collections of Mayo County Council, and Royal Holloway College, University of London.