Cork scenes and gorgeous ceramics: 10 Munster artists to buy direct from for Christmas
Jill Cotter trades as CorkiDoodledo and is one of the artists who sells her work online.
Jason O’Gorman is an artist, illustrator and designer from Cork.
He is best known for his Badly Drawn illustrations, which capture local landmarks, pubs and shops in a deliberately naïve style that celebrates their charm and imperfection.
O’Gorman also produces original paintings, and a range of prints whose subject matter is mostly drawn from his native city.
Prices from €20 for Corkmas cards, €25 for the Jog Calendar 2026, €30-€580 for giclée prints, and up to €750 for original paintings.
Jill Cotter lives, by her own account, on top of a hill between Monkstown and Passage West.
A graduate of Cork College of Art & Design, she markets her illustrations of buildings and streetscapes as CorklDoodledo.
Subjects include chip shops, pubs, hotels, and doors and windows in Cork city, Cobh and Kinsale.
Prices from €25 for giclée prints.
Tom Campbell is a Scottish born artist long settled in Cork.
A stalwart of Outlaw Studios, he is best known for his papier-maché dogs, bronze sculptures, and surrealistic paintings and drawings.
He has organised a series of Dog Projects, in Ireland and Britain, working with volunteers to produce 100 life-sized papier-maché dogs at each.
He also works as a comic and circus performer, and as a musician.
Prices from €120 – €400 for original paintings.
Noelle Ferris is originally from Co Down, but now lives in Ballincollig.
A self-taught artist, she began using felting kits and wool to make gifts for family and friends, but soon expanded into selling work online.
She now produces a range of arts and crafts, mostly inspired by the landscape, each meticulously crafted by hand from wool and other fibres.
Prices from €12 for Christmas card packs and €16 for felted soap to €80 for giclée prints and €850-€1,300 for original felt paintings.
Based in Cobh, Co Cork, Carmel Creaner is a textile artist whose best-known commission was the scarf she designed for the late Queen Elizabeth II to mark her visit to Cork in 2011.
Creaner exhibits regularly with Cork Textile Network, including at the current Face the Music Christmas exhibition at Cork School of Music.
Her handmade tableware range is available through her website.
Prices range from €25 for linen handkerchefs and towels to €380 for a set of napkins in a handcrafted Irish oak box.
Siobhan Steele is based in Kildinan, Co Cork.
Her handmade ceramics, in stoneware and porcelain, are inspired by her interest in literature and nature.
Each piece takes a minimum of two weeks to create, from forming and fettling through to decorating and glazing.
Prices from €25 for ceramic hearts and €50 for Message on a Bottle containers featuring Séamus Heaney and Maya Angelou quotations to €160 for unique vases.
Based at Coolagowen, outside Fermoy, Suzanne O’Sullivan is a member of the Blackwater Valley Makers, a collective of artists, craftspeople and designers.
A graduate of the Crawford College of Art & Design, she has completed specialist crafts courses in Turkey, Thailand and Australia, and produces vibrant handmade glass jewellery, bowls and sculptures.
Sun catchers from €35, glass pendants on sterling silver from €50, bowls from €140, unique sculptural pieces from €250 - €2,500.
Also gift vouchers and commissions.
Neil Hodges studied Furniture Making and Architectural Woodworking at ATU Letterfrack, Co Galway, before completing a year-long work experience residency in New Zealand.
Now back in Allihies, Beara, where he grew up, he designs and produces handmade chairs, tables, cabinets and kitchens, working in a range of wood that includes elm, walnut and yew.
Prices from €100 for chopping boards, fluke chairs from €1,000 and tables from €1,500.
Norman McCloskey studied photography at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, graduating in 1995, and is now based in Kenmare, Co Kerry.
He specialises in landscape studies, particularly along the coast of West Cork and Kerry, and has had work published regularly in the Sunday Times, Tatler Magazine and National Geographic.
One of his ongoing projects is Na Bothainín, a series of photographs of the fishing huts of Connemara, many of which were built by the Berridge family on the Ballynahinch Castle Estate.
Prices from €85 for open edition prints and €180-€590 for limited editions. Also Headlands and Kingdom books for €45.
Born in Co Wicklow, Carol Cronin spent a summer working on the Great Blasket Island in 2002, and chose to stay on in Kerry thereafter.
She now works at her studio/gallery in Dingle town, and specialises in seascapes in oils on canvas.
Her work has been shown in New York, Sicily, London and Dusseldork, and has featured on RTÉ and on the Discovery Channel.
Prices from €38 for Cronin’s Seascapes book and €195 for limited edition giclée prints. Original paintings by enquiry.
