We sat down with Irish pop artist Orla Walsh to pick her brain.
Here we speak to her about her incredible artwork…
The inspiration for my pieces come from… I’m an Irish pop artist. I paint Irish products. I go for inspiration in my own life, particularly the 1970s. I painted Taytos, Sudocrem, Dip Daps. Last year I did some drawings for Brown Thomas, it was 165 years. And for one of the pieces I was inspired by Bunty, the paper dolls from the comics. I always thought that was amazing and it’s been in the back of my brain for years. At the start of this year, a company came forward to ask me about doing some prints for them. As we were chatting she asked if I had fashion based prints before, at the time I hadn’t but I started to look into it. And that’s basically where these ideas were born. I thought it was such a fresh idea. And it was out of my comfort zone and something exciting. I have Barry’s Tea Pants, inspired by Bunty. I have Tayto dresses, I have a Kerrygold butter bag. People are mad about butter!! For the Kerrygold bag I was inspired by Gucci bags and their iconic bamboo handle with the shape of the Kelly bag. I started my career in graphic design. And it was kind of nice to get back to that for this project.
My favourite piece from my collection…It started with the butter bag, and then it was the Guinness shoes. Then came the Tayto shoes. I just love them, love them. You see it’s very hard! The Guinness lipstick as well, because I painted Guinness cans for years. So if I have to choose right now? I’m gonna choose the lipstick.
The best thing about being an artist…Being an artist is just about being able to be creative and work outside the box. I actually think it’s a luxury that I can go to my studio every morning. I come down here with my dog, Doug, we sit down, we make a cup of coffee, and I just disappear into my own world and I paint for seven, eight hours in a row. My dad works with me and the two of us are here together.
The hardest thing about working for myself is…Well, years ago I would say that the hardest thing was to make it work. I initially just wanted to be an artist who painted original paintings and went to exhibitions and just sold them. At the beginning, it’s really tough to try and get a gallery to stand by you. So making limited edition prints and creating a website and being picked up by places was the only way I was able to make a stable living out of it that I could have the luxury of painting. And it took 20 years to get there so it’s not an easy road, but when it works, you can be incredibly lucky. At the very beginning, I sold my first six original paintings to Heinz in the US and they hung them in their boardroom and that was an incredible beginning for me. Heinz UK then decided they were going to merchandise my paintings and they did in all the big stores and that went on for three or four years. So that was luck as well. So, there is a little bit of luck and a little bit of talent and a little bit of everything that goes into it.
I get my inspiration from…Sometimes you could just be reading the Sunday paper, or you could be listening to an audiobook, and hear something. Or someone could be eating something and I could hear a crinkle in a packet. If anything is crinkled, bent, torn, I am immediately drawn to it. So if I see a packet of sweets that’s been twisted at the top, it’s like the Kerrygold butter was sitting on the counter… Oh, and if it’s shin,y I will spend hours painting it. I’ve painted balloons for weeks and just sit there.
I’m most proud of…I’m always most proud of the last thing I’ve painted? There are so many exciting things that have happened to me through my career because I’ve been lucky that different things have happened. I’ve had lots of really lovely highs, and of course lows too. Every young artist will go through, being turned down for galleries or turned down for awards and then the next week, something will happen that will just give you the biggest high. There’s a reason I’m here. What I’m most excited about next? Well, I have a little bit of an idea in my head…
I dream of…I have this discussion with my husband all the time because he’ll say to me, “Where are you going with this one? Like, what are you doing?” I always say I want to do one big show. I want to take time off for a year, like just take time off maybe for a year or two years and just seriously concentrate on one thing. Like maybe tinfoil… I love things you can make with tin foil and I’ve already painted a couple of paintings. But then what does it mean to take time away? Do you shut your website? Do you keep yourself up and out there or do, or do you disappear?
Check out Atelier Walsh: The Art of Fashion, Reimagined by POP Artist Orla Walsh here