Orla Clancy “Painting of the Artist as a Child from a Photograph taken by her Father (Acrylic on canvas 41x51cm) depicts me on Aunty Gray, my mother’s old mare, bareback, having climbed up from the white fence. I worked from a photograph taken by my dad as a way to remember that day, and I love the light in it and still miss him. The outlines are sketchy because my memory is sketchy, but I remember very clearly the sound of the birds and the Lingaun river, the evocative smell of the horse’s coat, and my dad’s voice.”

The photograph that inspired this painting was taken by Orla’s father Paddy Clancy on the family farm where she grew up, near Carrick-on-Suir in Co Tipperary. Paddy was a founding member of The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem.

Orla graduated with a BA Fine Art, Limerick School of Art & Design (LSAD), TUS (2004). Additional training includes life drawing, portraiture, painting, printmaking, and graphic techniques in Ireland and The Netherlands. She holds a BA in German & French from UCD (1990).

Orla has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Ireland and abroad for the past 20 years. Her work explores landscape, people, and place and forms part of corporate and private collections.