Artist Lola Donoghue has transformed an old shop in Co Mayo into a bright workspace and gallery.
Strikingly vivid and utterly captivating, Lola Donoghue creates the kind of abstract visual art that you could stare at endlessly, and find something new in, every time. Best known for her large oil paintings, each of her works has a personality all of its own, composed of loosely-drawn linear elements and saturated splashes of glorious colour.
Having graduated from Limerick School of Art and Design (LSAD), Lola’s affinity for art began far earlier, at the age of six. “Sitting in my granny’s kitchen in England with adults chatting around the table, there were these placemats with pictures of Roland Rat on them,” Lola recalls. “I copied the picture onto a piece of paper, and carefully coloured it in. I remember looking at it and knowing it was good. Everyone else was a little shocked at how good it was, and my granny stuck it up on the wall. That’s the first memory I have of enjoying art.”
From early on, Lola was observant, soaking up every detail the moment she walked into a room. Thinking back, she realises that this was her artist’s eye all along. Before embarking on her four-year stint at LSAD, Lola did a portfolio preparation course at GTI in Galway, which is where everything seemed to fall into place.
“Everything just clicked when I went to GTI,” Lola tells me. “The year out I had taken renewed my focus. I loved going in every day, this was nothing like school had been. It was the first time we had the freedom to work on much larger-scale colour studies, and paintings.”
Originally from Tuam and now based in Shrule, in Co Mayo but close to the Galway border, I wonder if Lola’s upbringing has informed her work in any way. “Galway has such a strong tradition of the arts and culture – it’s so full of poets and artists and makers that it couldn’t not inform my work in some way,” she says. “It has its own vibe that’s so different from other cities. I suppose living in Galway made it easy to choose art as a career, because it isn’t an unusual path to take.”
After her studies were completed, Lola fell into a teaching career intended as a one-year stopgap that wound up lasting a decade. “I bought a house – back when a 20-something-year-old could get a mortgage on their own – and paying the mortgage meant staying in the ‘secure, pensionable job’. But deep down I knew I should be painting. It was a feeling that never went away, no matter how much I tried to suppress it.”
Since venturing into life as a full-time artist, Lola has experienced many highs. There have been plenty of exhibitions, both solo and group, collaborations with Ceadogán Rugmakers, and purchases from high-profile names such as the musical artist, Sia. For Lola, though, building her dream studio and gallery space in Shrule tops it all.
“I knew the moment I walked through the door that this was it,” Lola says of the bones of a building that was once a shop and petrol pumps owned by her partner Trevor’s grandparents in the 1970s. “Massive weeds were growing down through the ceilings, it was in a state of total disrepair, but the light was amazing. It just had a lovely feel to it. It needed a lot of work, but the pros outweighed the cons.
“The reaction from the locals has been fantastic. Once word got around that I was renovating, there were lots of ‘when are you opening?’ and ‘it’s great for the village’. This building was a gem hiding in plain sight. The front is on the main street of a beautiful little village and just a few feet down the back, I look out on to what feels like the countryside. It couldn’t be better.”
In terms of approaching the easel, Lola’s week is quite structured. “I am probably institutionalised from my ten years of teaching,” Lola laughs. “I’m never late and I rarely take days off. I treat painting like a full-time job. The structure helps me stay engaged and be productive. But once in the studio, the routine seems to fade, hours disappear, and the creative process takes over.
“Starting a painting is the most exciting part of the process. There is a lot of freedom and energy. Thinking too much early on can be restrictive. For this initial stage, I let loose and generally allow the painting to unfold naturally. As the piece develops and I’m satisfied with the underpainting stage, that’s when the real work begins. The process becomes more intentional with lots of decisions to be made.”
Each piece develops organically. “I often start a new series with a loose idea or theme, but I don’t force it as it generally reveals itself over time,” Lola tells me. “A dialogue develops with the painting, deciding what to conceal or what to carry forward. And because I work with oils that need time to dry in between layers, I have multiple pieces in progress at any given time. The size of my new studio allows me to stand back and create space between me and the painting, which is important when you work on a large scale. It also allows me to look at them as a whole, seeing everything at once, letting each piece inform the next.”
For Lola, inspiration comes from everywhere and anywhere. One of her series, entitled “Heirloom”, was inspired by objects given to her by her grandparents. What started off as something personal evolved into a broader exploration of how our relationship with physical objects as an expression of ourselves is changing.
“Since having my children, all of my work has in some way been an exploration of the constant push and pull of motherhood,” she muses. “The balancing act of trying to do it all, the expectations I place on myself, the standards I set, and the roles that both I and society impose.”
Lola is currently working on her next collection, which will be made up of some 20 pieces, and two of her works are on display at Outset Gallery in Galway as part of a wider exhibition. As the artist says, seeing new work come together is an endless source of excitement. She cannot wait to share it with the world.
Photography Jessica Glynn
