Shane O’Driscoll on making art in West Cork and taking part in the Incognito charity sale
Shane O'Driscoll: “I was quite productive during the pandemic lockdowns. When you're working as an artist or as a freelancer, you're quite adaptable anyway."
Shane O’Driscoll’s career in the visual arts has brought him on any number of adventures, the most colourful of which was undoubtedly his stint as artist in residence with Team Ireland at the Olympic Games in Paris last summer.
Three cyanotype prints he produced during his stay will feature in this year’s Incognito charity art auction in aid of the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation. The auction, in mid-April, will feature work donated by more than 1,000 professional artists, from over 50 countries, along with celebrities such as the singer/songwriter Róisín Murphy, fashion designer Simone Rocha, Olympian Sonia O’Sullivan and broadcaster Joe Duffy.
“I've been involved for at least five years now,” says O’Driscoll. “I’m from Bandon originally, and I’m now back living in West Cork, in Dunbeacon. But I was living in Dublin the first time I heard of the Incognito exhibition.
"I went in early hoping to pick up a bargain, but there were already huge queues around the block. It was something new and exciting and different, and it really struck a chord with me.
“Personally, when I buy art, I always appreciate there being any kind of a story or narrative attached to it. I think that’s why the Incognito auctions are so huge; there's such a strong human connection. Each time you see that artwork you bought with your heart, you're reminded that you’ve supported a great cause.”
As well as contributing work each year, O’Driscoll has featured in promotional videos for the Incognito auctions and has otherwise helped out however he could. “And through that, my interest has deepened,” he says. “I’ve learned about the families who benefit; it’s good to see where the donations go.”
O’Driscoll is largely self-taught as an artist. “I didn’t go to art college,” he says. “I studied Graphic Design at CIT, or MTU as it is now. Most of our training was on computers, but there was one module in printmaking.
"We’d go into the Crawford College of Art for that, and it really resonated with me; I wasn’t just moving a mouse around the screen, I was hands-on mixing ink and so on.
"I loved the tactility of it. On the back of that experience, I did a course at Cork Printmakers, and I kept up my interest when I moved to Dublin to work as an art director and graphic designer.”
O’Driscoll spent ten years in Dublin, a time he remembers with great fondness. “There were so many galleries and pop-up exhibitions to visit, and I got to know so many creatives in that community,” he says.
Eventually, he moved back to Cork with his partner. Determined to work full-time as a screenprint artist, he joined Cork Printmakers and set up a studio. “But then Covid hit in 2020, and we bailed out of the city,” he says. “I didn’t mind being isolated down here in Dunbeacon. There’s loads of space, and we’re lucky to be so near the beaches.
“I was quite productive during the pandemic lockdowns. When you're working as an artist or as a freelancer, you're quite adaptable anyway. I could do a lot of my work on the computer, and I bought a printing press as well. I found that period quite liberating, really.
"There were no deadlines, and I had time to work on ideas and plans and projects I’d put on the long finger for so long.”
It was during the lockdowns of 2020 that O’Driscoll helped establish the Ardú street art project in Cork; his contribution was a large scale mural on Harley Street in the city centre. He has painted many murals since. Like his screenprints, they feature blocks and stripes of colour.
“Architecture is a big influence on what I do,” he says. “Down here in West Cork, I’m often inspired by the colours and shape of the rolling fields, the barns, the farmyards and so on.”
One of O’Driscoll’s earliest influences was the late abstract artist Patrick Scott. “I remember seeing one of his prints in a gallery in Bandon, and thinking, this is cool. It wasn’t until I was a bit older that I realised Patrick was from Kilbrittain, not far from where I grew up.
" hadn’t really appreciated how important a figure he was in Irish art.”
O’Driscoll’s involvement with Team Ireland at the Paris Olympics saw him spending all of July 2024 at the Irish Cultural Centre, on Rue des Irlandais in the Latin Quarter.
“It really was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” he says. “Team Ireland took over the whole Cultural Centre for the duration. I’d get up in the morning, and have breakfast with gold medallist athletes. My initial proposal had been to do workshops with them.
"But it grew larger than that. I ended up creating artwork to commemorate the centenary of Team Ireland. And then that artwork was used on t-shirts and water bottles for the team, and it went on to be a print edition.”
O’Driscoll will not reveal too much about the cyanotypes he has donated to Incognito – that would go against the spirit of the auction, after all – other than to say that “they’re quite different to my silkscreens.
"It’s a different process. I didn't have a proper print studio to set up in, so they’re very experimental; three images exposed by the Parisian sun.”
Incognito is an annual art auction that was first organised by Lucinda Hall in 2017. Incognito raises funds for the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation, established by the Kildare couple Mary Ann O’Brien and Jonathan Irwin, whose son Jack passed away at home, aged 22 months, in December 1997.
The Foundation provides a practical care home nursing model, offering respite to parents and carers supporting children with complex medical needs, and end-of-life care for children up to the age of six. It now supports more than 400 families.
Incognito 2025 features over 3,500 artworks, whose creators will not be identified until after their work has sold.
Half the collection will be available for purchase at the Incognito Gallery at Unit 5, Charlemont Square, Dublin 2 on April 11 and 12. The rest will be available to buy online from 8am on April 16.
The artworks are all priced at €70, and can be viewed on incognito.ie.
- Further information: jackandjill.ie; and mrshaneodriscoll.com
