Jerry Hall, Philip Treacy, Don O’Neill and Hugh Wallace are among the celebrity artists supporting the annual art fundraiser for the Jack and Jill Foundation.
Ireland’s biggest online art sale has been launched in Dublin’s Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) gallery with 1,200 artists involved in the Incognito auction.
Art lovers can bid on 3,300 original postcard-size artworks for €65.
“You could be buying a gem,’’ Home of the Year presenter Hugh Wallace said, who has contributed a work of art to the auction.
“When you look at these paintings, everyone involved is really passionate about their time and generosity to create unique paintings,” he added.
Whoever ends up with a Hugh Wallace painting can expect “a little bit of architecture”.
“I did it while I was on my holidays in Spain because I just got inspired by this old building and an element of architecture which was terrific because it was about grain and architecture and tactility and all those things that I love,” Mr Wallace said.
Monies raised from Incognito supports the Jack and Jill Foundation, a nationwide charity funding in-home nursing care and respite support to families caring for children, up to the age of six, with complex medical needs.
Artist Thelma Mansfield was only too happy to create something special.
“It’s been one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life, was to go back to art because it was the perfect thing for me,” Ms Mansfield said.
“My husband, as soon as I had retired from RTÉ, was diagnosed with Parkinsons and that was going to be a long struggle and art helped me,” she added.
This year the public could pick up a piece by a variety of famous artists including model and actress Jerry Hall, comedian Colin Murphy, fashion designers Helen Steele, Heidi Higgins and Simone Rocha, milliner Philip Treacy, jewellery designer Chupi Sweetman and singer Brian Kennedy.
“When you turn it over and see the name on the back of the painting, you’re going to be knocked out if it’s somebody famous or well known,” Thelma Mansfield said.
“I decided to stick with my normal format but just reduce it down, down, down and try to make it as lovely as possible,’’ she added.
The Jack and Jill Foundation supports more than 400 children in communities across the country.
“Every €18 that is raised with a sale goes straight into the home,” June Foxton said, Nurse Liaison manager for the charity.
“It gives one hour of nursing respite,” she said.
“Somebody is there to solely mind the child with complex needs and allow the family to go out with their other children, bring them to GAA and bring siblings out for one-on-one time,” she added.
Some of the other well-known names who have taken up their brushes include Martin Mooney, Bridget Flinn, Martin Gale, Fergus Martin and Ruthie Ashenhurst.
Buyers have three weeks to pick their favourite pieces before the sale goes live on Wednesday, 24 April.
