Maud Cotter was born in Wexford in 1954. Her family moved to Cork, and she studied sculpture and painting at the Crawford School of Art 1972-75. In the late 1970's she developed increasing interest in stained glass, and studied techniques of stained glass with James Scanlon. She established her own studio 1980-82, and started the stained glass department at the Crawford School in 1982. That year she was a recipient of a G.P.A. Award for Emerging Artists. She has had one-person exhibitions at the Crawford Gallery, 1983 and the Bank of Ireland, Cork 1985 and has been represented in numerous group exhibitions, notably Cork Art Now '85. 'Cork Glass Art', a travelling exhibition of stained glass by Maud Cotter and James Scanlon, opened to great acclaim in London in 1986. "Initially attracted to glass because of its colour....she has developed the sculptured possibilities of glass". (Vera Ryan); she combines the gestural use of line with colour as if 'painting' with glass.

Ref:           
Cork Art Now '85 Crawford Art Gallery Cork, 1985. Exhibition catalogue by Vera Ryan
Cork Glass Art Maud Cotter and James Scanlon, Triskel Arts Centre, 1986. Catalogue by Nicola Gordon-Bowe