This exhibition brings together a new series of paintings by Hughie O’Donoghue inspired by Luggala, the remarkable Wicklow estate to which the artist has returned over many years. Developed through an extended period of living and working on the estate, these works explore the relationship between place, memory and the passing of time.
“My connection to Luggala began in 1991, when I first stayed there for a few days with Richard Ryan and met Garech Browne. I remember making a drawing in the visitors’ book on that first visit, and I have made several drawings of Luggala since. Until recently, however, I had never painted it. Part of the challenge for a painter is that Luggala is almost too picturesque.
Landscape, when it appears in my work, is always evoked rather than observed. It is never simply a ‘view’, but rather a summation of a feeling for a particular place.
Over the years, and after many visits, I occasionally considered making a series of paintings, but came to realise that the only way to approach this was to immerse myself fully in the place. In October 2023, some time after Garech’s death, the new owners of the estate kindly offered me a studio and an apartment within the grounds, beside the main house.
I intended to spend a full year there, experiencing the Luggala estate through all four seasons. I wanted to live there, rather than simply visit, believing this to be essential to truly knowing my subject.
The struggle to find and realise new images took time. Eventually, the motifs I had hoped to discover began to emerge: the lake and mountain, the giant moss-covered stones. Although Luggala is home to many enormous and spectacular trees, I found myself returning again and again to one particular young wych elm, which became an emblem of the passing seasons.
In the end, I stayed for almost two years, on and off. While continuing to work on other themes, also represented in this exhibition, the paintings of Luggala mark a new departure in my practice.” Hughie O’Donoghue, Sept 20206.
Artist Bio
Born 1953 O’Donoghue lives and works in Co Mayo, Ireland and London, UK. He completed an M.A. at Goldsmiths, London in 1982. Artist in Residence at The National Gallery, London 1984-85 and The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin in 1997-98. He received an Honorary Doctorate from National University of Ireland, Cork in 2005. Elected Royal Academician in 2009, Aosdána in 2013 and Honorary Fellow of Goldsmiths, University of London 2022.
O’Donoghue’s series of six paintings Original Sins were acquired by the National Gallery of Ireland and were on display in The Shaw Room from 2022 until earlier this year. Other solo museum exhibitions include The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, DOX Centre, Prague, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, Imperial War Museum, London and Manchester, Royal Academy, London, Abbot Hall Gallery, Kendal, Leeds City Art Gallery, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and tour.
His work is in many private and public collections including National Gallery, London, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, The British Museum, London, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Art Gallery of South Australia, Ulster Museum, Belfast, Dallas Museum of Art, USA, Michigan Museum of Art, USA, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven USA.
Image: Hughie O’Donoghue, Four Trees Sunrise, 2026, Oil on canvas, 42 x 51 cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
