With huge crowds in attendance at the Cork Summer Show across the two-day event, there wasn’t a dull, or a quiet, moment.
Yet nestled amongst the dozens of trade stalls that dominated the Cork Showgrounds in Curraheen was a Co Clare-based artist whose attention to detail never wavered, as she could be found working intently on her commissions.
Jackie O’Donoghue, a pet portrait and wildlife artist whose drawings include those of beloved pet dogs and horses to farm animals, spent the weekend drawing inspiration from what was happening around her, and she told the that combining art and animals has always been her “passion”.
“I grew on a farm in Ballinadee in West Cork. My dad was a tillage farmer with suckler cows and my mother had a riding school, so animals were always part of our lives – our world revolved around the animals,” she said.
“My earliest memories of the art came from my mother drawing us pictures, I used to be captivated by these drawings she used to do for us of our ponies and that’s what instilled the love of that.
“Putting the two of them together was my passion.”
While her “copybooks would be scribbled over, and it’s started to bear fruit now”, after school, Ms O’Donoghue “went down a different path; I really wanted to pursue my art but the whole thing at the time when I left school was that there was no money in art”.
“I used to hear the phrase ‘starving artist all the time’ and I was just pushed against it,” she said.
“I went into a completely different line of work – production and quality control – so it was a totally different environment but I was always doing art as a hobby, it was my outlet, I had to keep creating in my own time.
“It was always there in the background, I would always be dreaming about it, and if I could build up the confidence to do this full time.”
She was doing portraits “and word got out then, and it just started growing”.
Ms O’Donoghue is a “home-bird”, and feels attached to the land, animals, and way of life in her beloved West Cork.
“Then I met my husband and he’s a Co Clare man, and I made the move – I thought I’d never leave home,” she said.
“But he’s from a farming background as well, he loves horses, so I just said look, follow my heart.”
She hit a crossroads, “I had to give up my job because I just couldn’t do the commute, I had two little girls – they’re two and three years old now – and I was at the end of my maternity leave and I either had to go back into what I was doing, the industrial life, or give art full-time a go, finally”.
“The stars aligned, and I said I’d do it. I became professional and it’s brilliant, it’s been a dream since,” she said.
“It’s been hard with my two little girls, I can only do it when they’re asleep which means an early start, and after they go to bed I’ll keep going until 11, it has to be done if I want this to work, and it is starting to see the benefits now. It’s been great.”
Ms O’Donoghue “grew up going to agricultural shows, the shows are the highlight of my life”, and it’s the same for her children now, who are “obsessed” with attending, and all have a love for animals.
“They’re the best days out for young and old and it’s great training for kids as well in responsibility and just to see the ponies turned out so nicely in their shiny coats, the care, the love that goes into it all,” she said.
“We’ve all had those special animals growing up, you remember your childhood dogs and you remember your first ponies and the connections you have with them and the imaginations you’d have with them as a child was something I really wanted to reproduce in my art.
“Everyone has such a bond with their animals and it means so much to people.
“The reaction you get from people when you hand over a portrait, it makes people cry, it’s just incredible.”
Ms O’Donoghue started out doing oil paintings before switching to pencils that are of the highest quality, and don’t fade over time.
“I just knew this was it, this was my medium, it really suits my style; you can get that tenderness and delicateness in the portraits and when you look at an animal, I just feel they look into your soul, and I love to portray that, to really accentuate the eyes and get that expression that you’d see.
“It’s that tenderness you feel from them; that’s what I love to express in my portraits.”
Cork Summer Show was only her second time exhibiting at an agricultural show – having attended Clonakilty the weekend before.
“There was so much inspiration, and it was just so encouraging.”