Incognito: The charity art sale where you can buy a world-class painting for €65
Clockwise from top left: artist Anna St George will be selling some of her paintings in this year's Incognito art sale, plus two of the works that will be on sale.
Art lovers will have ample opportunity to add to their collections when Incognito 2022 opens for bidding on April 21. More than 1,200 artists have contributed a total of over 3,000 artworks to the online auction, which benefits the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation. The charity helps with home nursing care and respite support for children up to the age of 6 with serious health issues.
The postcard-sized works in the annual sale can already be viewed online, at incognito.ie, and each is priced at just €65. The artists will not be identified until after the sale is completed, but they include some of Ireland’s best-known names, such as Robert Ballagh, Maria Levinge, and Martin Gale. There are also a number of celebrity contributors, such as Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood and the Irish singers Andrea Corr, Christy Dignam, and Damien Dempsey.
Incognito is now in its sixth year, and one of those who has contributed work almost from the beginning is Limerick artist Anna St George. “I first heard of Incognito when it was launched in 2017,” she says. “I submitted work the following year, and I’ve done so every year since. It’s very handy; we all produce postcard-sized paintings, and I usually submit three every year. The Jack and Jill Foundation is a great cause, and everybody’s happy to support it.”
St George is a native of Limerick city and a graduate of Limerick School of Art and Design, where she was mentored by the late Jack Donovan. “I studied painting, and a bit of sculpture. My classmates included people like Charlie Harper, Máiréad Tobin, Mick Fitzpatrick and Tom Fitzgerald. I left college for a while, but then I went back. Jack was the Head of LSAD, and he was probably the biggest influence on me, in terms of giving me encouragement when I was starting out. Henry Morgan was another local artist who encouraged me.”
Later on, St George taught painting at the college for a number of years, and one of her students was John Shinnors, who is now recognised as one of Ireland’s foremost painters. “I’m great friends with John,” she says. “I see him all the time. His work has gotten more abstract over the years, but he’s doing very well for himself.”
For the past 26 years, St George has lived outside Limerick, in the village of Castleconnell, where she runs the Penny Lane Art Studio. “It’s basically where I work and where I show my paintings. I work away five days a week at my own pace. It’s not a production line; if I like the work, I’ll put it out there, but only when it’s ready. People often come into the gallery and order paintings. Sometimes it’s corporate clients, wanting work for their offices. Other times, I’d be sending commissions all over the world, to Germany, Dubai and the United States.”
St George has had a number of solo exhibitions around the country. She also shows regularly at spaces such as Seán and Margaret Cannon’s Western Light Gallery on Achill Island, Co Mayo; The Whitethorn Gallery in Clifden, Co Galway; and the Kilbaha Gallery at Loop Head, Co Clare.
St George likes to paint in oils, and her favourite subject is the sea, which she often captures at its wildest. “I paint landscapes as well, and sometimes portraits. But I love painting seascapes the most. We spend a lot of time in Kilkee, in Co Clare, so most of my ideas come from there. I tend not to paint outside. I might take a photograph, and start off from that when I come back to my studio, but then my own imagination and energy takes over. I like to think that what I’m painting is the feel of the sea, I’d always want there to be a bit of drama in it.”
The Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation delivers specialist home nursing and end-of-life care for children up to six years of age. This year, as it celebrates its 25th anniversary, the charity is supporting parents in caring for more than 400 children in communities across Ireland.
Incognito was founded in 2017, and its first edition was curated by Lucinda Hart. On that occasion, and for the first three years, Incognito was a physical event, with exhibitions in Dublin and Cork. However, with the arrival of Covid-19 in 2020, the event moved online, which worked to its benefit, attracting a global audience of art lovers.
To buy work in Incognito 2022, art lovers must first register their account, which will allow them to browse the 3,000+ pieces available in this year’s sale and add works of interest to their Wish List.
On April 21, each artwork will be entered into a lottery system, and one lucky individual from those who have added the work to their Wish List will be selected at random to buy it. Those works not sold through the lottery system will then be available for sale individually. All orders will be packed and shipped by registered post within two weeks of the sale.
Further information: incognito.ie
