Imelda Bradley at her home studio in Poles. Photo: Damian McCarney

The raw experience of nature’s little miracles

Imelda Bradley had no further to look for inspiration for her spellbinding series of artworks than out her kitchen window.

Imelda’s paint brush and pen tip have tenderly captured the likenesses of almost every Irish garden bird, some repeatedly. The petite paintings have found countless new homes amongst online admirers, or shoppers browsing Chapter One’s shelves in Cavan Town.

Imelda will be better known to many as a teacher at St Clare’s National School, Cavan, a job she loved.

“I was always interested in art from when I was a very young child. In my teaching career I would have always loved teaching children art,” she says over a coffee at her kitchen table at Poles, on Cavan’s outskirts. Her talent was acknowledged and harnessed through art courses for teachers, and also for adult groups.

“My plan was always to do art for myself, and that’s why I took early retirement,” says Imelda whose three adult children Bláthnaid, Robert and Fiona have all fled the nest.

Through the patio doors a selection of feeders stand within a few feet and quarrel of sparrows boss the territory where generous sprinkling of porridge oats dapple the ground. A chaffinch covets the scene from a branch at a safe distance while a peckish magpie undertakes reconnaissance from the vantage point of a fence, but thinks better of it.

“If you sit and watch the birds, they’re little characters. They have their own personalities, you can see the bullies, you can see the ones that are shy, and that are running around.

“They are all unique,” she contends. “They are all beautiful. We have such an array of birds here in Irish gardens. We have sparrows, chaffinches, bluetits, greenfinches, goldfinches – the list goes on and on and on. I think I have nearly all those little birds done at this stage.”

The first species she painted in her garden bird series was the robin.

“A lot of people have a special tie to robins,” Imelda says of the bird which is her most popular subject. Many people view robins as a ‘spirit bird’.

“An awful lot of people would see them as a loved one coming to be beside them – their spirit coming back. A little message from the spirit world: they’re not alone.

“And then, they’re just so cute and so friendly – they just want to be beside you. When you are working in the garden, all of a sudden you hear this song beside you.”

Asked for her favourite, Imelda readily admits to being drawn to the wren.

“I see the little wrens hopping around on the trees and the fence. You just want to go out and hold them. With their tail sticking up they are so cute.

“I love the wrens, and then I suppose the mythology and old stories to go with the wrens, that’s another aspect that draws me to the wren as well – the cheeky little wren he’s the king of all birds – I love that story.”

All wildlife

She expanded her series to include other creatures such as hares, bees, dragonflies, ladybirds.

“It’s all wildlife at this stage. I’m just finishing off a little squirrel this week.

“It brings people’s attention to how beautiful these creatures are in the wild. I’m hoping I may do a little hedgehog because we have one coming to the garden now,” she says of her latest visitor.

The range of wildlife around Imelda and husband Patrick’s house is like something out of a Disney movie.

“They seem to be attracted to this area. We had bats at one stage in the eaves, and then we had hives of bees in the fascia. They came last year and it was a hive of activity, literally! At the beginning of June, I was out in the garden and heard this humming and I didn’t know if it was helicopter or what - I walked around and the whole garden was full of bees. They moved over to the next field - they haven’t come back.

“They had only gone and a nest of ground wasps arrived. And now the hedgehog! What’s going on, I don’t know. What’s left to come?”

To create her artworks she sources images from Instagram and gets permission from whoever took the photo.

“It could be the pose or maybe a gaze,” she says of what determines which image she selects.

“I would spend a lot of time getting the detail with precision, and try to replicate the bird. When you are doing that you develop more love and respect for that creature. They are little miracles really, when you actually look at the detail.

“I usually start with the eye. Once I get the eye drawn, I am pulled into it – and I just have to finish it,” she says.

She often sketches the bird in pencil, but occasionally in black pen, before layering up in watercolour; other times she executes the work solely in watercolour.

Once the original painting is complete, prints are made which she may embellish by hand with a goldleaf circle - a radiating halo around the scene. Or maybe it’s echoing a tea stain considering she occasionally perches a bluetit or robin on a willow pattern cup or teapot. Regardless, the primary focus of the images is solely the animal.

Satisfaction

The Celt notes she must have amazing patience to recreate such detail.

“I enjoy it, you kind of get lost to it. There’s a great feeling of satisfaction when you are doing it and it’s working out right – you are building it up bit by bit by bit, and it’s just coming together lovely – it does feel good.”

The level of detail is truly remarkable when seen up close. The results are quite counter-intuitive: the more accomplished her draughtsmanship, the further she is able to remove herself from the engagement between viewer and subject.

“I want to strip it back to the bird alone, so people can have a raw experience with the bird. To see it as it is, to see their beauty.”

To see more of Imelda’s work see her Instagram account @imelda_bradley_art