Susan Igoe at her studio in Ballindrimley. Pic. Liam Reynolds
It will be an extremely busy run in to Christmas for Castlerea artist Susan Igoe who continues to go from strength to strength with her unique artistic offerings.
The pandemic and lockdown earlier this year prompted Susan to return to college to study for her second degree, this time a BA in Contemporary Arts from GMIT given her lifelong love of art.
The former teacher with a degree in Music and Religion, has her own studio in which she is spending most of her days now balancing her busy academic endeavours and an even busier order book where she is in constant demand with commissions.
“Art has been my passion all of my life and it’s great to be studying it now and also seeing how well my own work is received by people. I usually draw and get commissioned to do private paintings of machinery, buildings or portraits. I’m also big into showcasing my work on social media, it’s an important part of the process and I can reach a very wide audience through that. The feedback has been absolutely fantastic and very encouraging,” says Susan from Ballindrimley, Castlerea.
Often using colour pencils and soft pastels, she is currently very busy painting portraits of humans and animals. Using reference photographs to ensure a strong likeness, the talented Castlerea woman has received fantastic feedback from customers. While she acknowledges that it is time consuming, she feels the effort its worth it to ensure that customers are happy with the work they have commissioned.
“It’s been a very rewarding to see that its word of mouth from happy customers that’s getting me new business. I’m very grateful to the people of Castlerea and nearby areas for their support, it has meant an awful lot to me,” she told the Herald this week.
From unique portraits to Christmas cards and abstract acrylic painting on canvas, Susan’s ETSY shop showcases her wide range of work. Her most popular offerings include an abstract digital work of a map of Castlerea and a robin themed Christmas card.
“These are very popular on my ETSY shop; and I’ve had customers purchasing them from the US, Germany, Australia and Dubai as well as throughout Ireland. It’s very rewarding to know that my work has spread all over the world,” added Susan.
Susan recently collaborated with Castlerea jeweller Michael Kenny on the Heroes Jewellery collection, which has been designed to symbolise and recognise the compassion, care and courage of the heroes in everyone’s personal lives.
“It was something different to work with Michael on the collection which is is for a good cause and it was very rewarding,” she explained.
For more details of Susan’s work contact Susan on [email protected] for more information or log onto https://ellensusanigoeart.etsy.com/.
