Back to the drawing board
During lockdown Cavan artist Jackie O’Neill rented a little country cottage near the picturesque village of Milltown where, like pretty much everyone worldwide, she had an abundance of time to sit back, think and “reassess” where her focus was at. Slipping silently into a state of “just being”, a process of genuine introspection dawned. “You’re always trying to grow, as a person, as an artist, and I realised how much I now want to simplify things.”
The realisation follows, in hindsight, years where Jackie feels she allowed her work to become structured by whatever research served as inspiration.
“I was spending a lot of time looking out the window, at nature, the world going by, and it struck me this idea to just strip everything I’ve been doing back. No words, no people’s opinions, and really dig into the art of what I’m supposed to be doing.”
The next stage of this enlightenment was to figure out the “how”. Visually Jackie felt this might best be served through the medium of paint.
Having graduated with a B.A. in textile design from GMIT in 2009, followed by three years honing her craft in London’s fashion industry, Jackie admits: “I’ve been 13 years out of college, and a lot of that has been spent working on my own. So it’s time I feel, technically, to go back and learn.”
To get a feel for the swish and smoothness of brushstroke, Jackie leaned on friend, abstract painter Paul Galligan. She visited him at his home studio near Killykeen from where the pair decamped to a nearby wooded area, plastering small hand-held canvas’ with layers of think acrylic to then carefully pin scratch the horizon a lá sgraffito into the superficial layer of paint.
The experience was revelatory.
“I essentially went out to him for a play date and asked him to show me his techniques. Paint is not what I studied. So this for me was going outside my comfort zone. Yes I use paint in my work. I would have done a week’s module in college, where I specialised in textiles we very much focus on gouache, a designer paint, very detailed. Over the years I’ve taught myself water-colour, pen and ink, but I don’t know how to use oil paints and I’d love to know how to use acrylic.”
Jackie sits back into one of two comfortable Nordic-style armchairs. She has smile-lines around her eyes, and reaches to a nearby table where a steaming mug of Earl Grey tea sits. She takes a sip. Behind her, beyond the curved wall of her newly opened studio, down to where the busy junction of Main Street and Bridge Street meet, the morning air is already heavy with the bustle of people toing-and-froing.
Jackie points to a framed print of a recent body of work- the Belturbet Dreamscape Trail. It’s a composition bringing all of the elements of the island trail together in a single composition - one inspired by Dutch master painter Hieronymus Bosch and his triptych oil on oak panel, ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’.
“What I’ve been doing over the years has been very structured,” explains Jackie.
“I’d take a picture, or a photograph, an idea, some research and really it’s all mapped out in front of me from there, even before I get started. So what I really want is to learn how to paint more loosely. I’m fascinated by capturing colour.”
She says of her interactions with Paul: “I see how freely he works. He goes into the studio with no pre-conceived ideas, and I came away from that seeing just how much I have to learn.”
It was a search of the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) website that led Jackie to click on a link offering part-time courses for already established artists looking to up-skill. Not only did Jackie apply, but she also earned a scholarship to attend.
Across 15 weeks Jackie is imbibing the tutelage of some of Ireland’s most famous working painters, among them the likes of Dublin-based fine art painter Sean Molloy, and RHA Award winning figurative painter, Blaise Smith.
“It’s been eye-opening,” she gushes of her first week in the course.
“For them to breakdown the practicalities of what they do and generously share it with me is such an amazing opportunity.”
More so Jackie is delighted at the prospect of getting back to being “messy” with art.
It hints at a path already trodden, when as a fresh-faced artist starting out Jackie journeyed to Japan in 2013, a trip that inspired her collection ‘Caught In A Loop’. It is the freedom from when she travelled the 10,000 kilometres to delve into its culture of iconic imagery, from cherry blossoms to Mount Fuji, that Jackie hopes to rediscover.
“That was my first exhibition, I applied to the council for a Personal Development Award to give me time to play around.
“It wasn’t commissioned, it was all very natural, and I went with no decisions on what it might become. Back then I wasn’t really selling my work to anyone, so I had this time and space to just try to be an artist.”
It fits too with Jackie moving shop - literally - but only next door, to a space which is 30 per cent retail and 70 per cent work studio. That proportion, figuratively, is where Jackie’s mind is at right now in terms of balancing the urge to be creative against the commercial reality of being an artist with the real world overheads of light, heat, rent and rates.
“Where I was had turned into a thriving little commercial space and place to display my work, but one where I couldn’t actually work any more, which saw me then having to rent space elsewhere for big projects.
“I was renting houses down the country, creating my own little artist residencies. But that’s not sustainable either. So here, with the new studio, the work space is bigger than the gallery. That’s important I feel, and shows where my priorities are.”
Finally, Jackie will soon make use of an artistic bursary awarded by the Arts Office at Cavan County Council to allow her take up residency at Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig in neighbouring Monaghan.
“I was awarded it before the pandemic, but it’s only now I’m actually getting to use it. So it’s worked out really well, and I’ll have the opportunity then to tease out all these new skills that I’ve learned while I’m down there for two weeks. I don’t know where it’s going to take me, but I’m excited.”