Serendipity

Irish Artist Bairbre Higgins abstract work – called Serendipity – depicting the floating head of a cow photographed near Barleycove beach in west Cork.

Inspired by: Irish artist Louis Le Broquy’s ‘Presence’ series.

About: Bairbre Higgins (née Quinlan) worked in finance before returning to her twin passion of writing and art. Having studied under renowned Irish Artist, Brian McCarthy (famed for his large-scale portraits and surrealist, politically-themed works), Bairbre honed her skills in the medium of oil-paint, using palette knife and brush to depict the animals and soft landscapes of Munster. Her oil-on-canvas heads comprise an initial impressionistic image overlaid with layers of colourful paint before impasto technique is used to apply whites and greys. Following the secret logic of imagination, the artist’s goal is to materialise the unique spirit of each animal.

Primary Source: Subject matter for many of Higgins’s animal heads (including Serendipity) is sourced from photographs she and her daughter take over the walls and hedges of West Cork and Clare, places where she has holidayed since a young age.