My Favourite Room
Different places, including New Zealand and England, have played a part in the development of Simone Walsh as a painter. However, Wexford, where she has a lovely home, is where the magic happens
Artist Simone Walsh gives a tour of her Wexford home
Artist Simone Walsh and her lovely husband Joe Beashel are both Irish born and bred — however, they met while working in New Zealand.
And while most young people are anxious to the point of trepidation about bringing their intended home for the parents’ approval, that was not something Simone had to worry about; her mother visited her regularly during her years in New Zealand and actually met Joe first and thought he was charming.
“While I was working, Mum would go shopping with my girlfriends and then for a drink at the Irish bar in Auckland. And it was there she met Joe,” Simone recalls with a laugh. “Shortly afterwards, the fan belt went in my car, and — you know the way all the Irish stick together abroad — one of my friends mentioned that a guy called Joe from Dublin who was in the car business would fix it for me. He came to my apartment and it transpired Mum knew him. And she approved.”
Deciding to get together with Joe was not the only big decision Simone made while in Kiwi territory — it was there, too, that the talented Dubliner decided to become a full-time painter.
The themes of her paintings and prints are quintessentially Irish. The Wexford-based artist is noted for her nostalgic take on the Irish larder and Irish brands; her scenes of an Irish childhood; her quirky vision of our coastal villages, and her highly individual interpretation of our many national heritage sites. Yet, it was a quality in the New Zealand climate that set her on her course.
“You couldn’t but be struck by the light there. The weather is so good, there’s a vibrancy about the colours. Everything is greener, bluer; it’s amazing. I try to capture that in my work,” she says.
We called ourselves the three amigos. For her 70th birthday, we backpacked around Asia together; Mum loved it
While the decision to become an artist was made abroad, art was Simone’s thing from an early age. It was in the genes — her father was a well-known photographer in his day.
“Dad used to photograph all the celebrities who came here — people like Twiggy in the 1960s and 1970s. I was always artistic.
The story goes that if anyone was looking for a pencil or drawing paper, it was a case of ‘Ask Simone’.”
After school, she studied graphic design in Mountjoy Square and got a good job in the field immediately on graduation but decided shortly afterwards to go travelling. Her first stint abroad was brief — she had to cut it short as she got word that her father was ill and she wanted to be home for him.
“My dad was a fabulous character and a stoic to the end. When asked, ‘What kind of cancer have you?’, he’d answer, ‘The kind that kills you’,” Simone remembers.
He died within the year and she headed back to Auckland and a job as a graphic designer with Auckland University. Shortly after, she got together with Joe, and to the delight of both, her mother visited often.
“We called ourselves the three »
amigos. For her 70th birthday, we backpacked around Asia together — she loved it.” Another time the three of them did a trip on separate motorbikes, and she relished that, too. “We had a great lifestyle — we ran an art shop there with friends and I used to design brochures for a big company in the tourism industry,” Simone says.
The couple hopped from New Zealand to Ireland and back a few times, then, in 2000, they came back permanently and settled in Ringsend in Dublin, where Simone started to paint full-time.
Her first venture into selling was at the Blackrock Market, where a lot of creative people start. “On the first day, I sold one piece to a French girl. I was thrilled. The second day was good too, and at the end of the weekend I had sold £550-worth of work,” she says. “The next weekend was even better; I made £750. It evened out after that but I knew I was on to something. People liked my style.”
After that, they decided they needed a studio/showcase for Simone’s work and they found a house and shop in the Model County of Wexford, near enough to Dublin and their other outlets — they exhibited in Merrion Square and at Gifted in the RDS, both very lucrative venues for Simone’s work. At the time, Simone only sold originals.
Then the crash happened. “It was as if a light went out,” she says. “Suddenly, there was no demand for paintings — they were a luxury item.”
They brainstormed, realised that, in Wexford, they were near the ferry to the UK and they started to go over and take stands at the arts and crafts shows all over Britain. The strategy worked — it helped them to survive.
“England was a bigger market — we’d do two shows per trip. We didn’t get rich, but we made a living,” says Joe.
It was on one of those trips that the idea to change direction was born. “We were asked so many times if we had any prints. Simone was only doing originals but we realised there must be something in that,” Joe says.
So they decided to have a range of prints ready for Showcase in the RDS in 2011. “We picked up a few nice accounts, but nothing spectacular. But people say you should always try a show twice, so we did it again in 2012,” says Joe. “And we picked up the Kilkenny Group. That changed the whole dynamic. Suddenly we had a lot of customers who live overseas and they love the nostalgia of ranges like The Irish Larder .”
Simone says The Irish Larder came about when she was in a favourite pub in Bridgetown called Bridie’s and there on the shelf were all these items Simone remembered from her own childhood. “There was Brennan’s Bread, Batchelors Beans, Odlums Flour and Flahavan’s porridge. I decided, ‘I’ll paint Bridie’s shelf and I’ll call it The Irish Larder’,” she recalls. It struck a chord, and people sent gifts of her paintings and prints to friends and family all over the world.
Simone went on to develop a host of different ranges — she does flora, fauna and landscapes, fish and seascapes and, tapping into the current craze for pets, she has a cat and dog range. Simone and Joe have their own two moggies, Moma and her son Ronaldo.
She and Joe constantly brainstorm and come up with new themes — they even have a lovely university range, which no doubt appeals as a gift for graduates. Nothing is as the ordinary person sees it, everything is given the special Simone treatment. In addition to originals and prints, she now also does a host of products — greeting cards, journals, kitchen textiles and mugs — and these are popular, too.
“Nowadays, we have a presence in nearly every independent store in Ireland,” Joe says, adding that he does all the administration and marketing, while Simone creates the goods.
Fortunately for the couple they had developed an online presence with a terrific website and so were well set up for online sales, and throughout the pandemic they have been beavering away selling to their customers as far afield as Australia, America and central Europe from their fabulous studio/ gallery which they started building last January. It was recently completed and they have plenty of work and storage space for all their different art and household products.
Building a contemporary-style gallery in the tiny Wexford village of Bridgetown may sound a little optimistic given the year we’ve had, but as Joe explains it, it makes perfect sense. They are next door to the popular Ballycross Apple Farm, and they are on the Wexford Greenway, which is set to open this year. They will also be on the Wexford arts and crafts trail.
“When we heard about the Greenway, we decided to build the gallery. It’s a nicer workspace for us but also it’s a nicer space for people to visit, and we’re so near to tourist hotspots like Rosslare and Kilmore Quay, it makes perfect sense. It’s an extra place for holidaymakers to go as a change from the beach,” says Joe.
The gallery, designed by Wexford-based architects O’Leary Sludds, is a really interesting space both inside and out. And while the interior is a big white, highceilinged area, the better to show off the artworks, the exterior is painted a dramatic purple, a great backdrop for showing off the silver fish sculpture which was designed by Simone, made locally and attached to the wall outside.
The gallery is built on the grounds of their home, which they bought in 2005. A modern house, it has four bedrooms and four
I decided to paint Bridie’s shelf with Brennan’s Bread and Flahavan’s Porridge and call it ‘The Irish Larder’
bathrooms. At the time of purchase, it was in good condition but over the years they’ve changed everything — making it all even more contemporary in style.
“We had always lived in older houses and this is our first modern home but we love what we’ve been able to do with it,” says Simone. The house had geo-thermal heating but they took it out and put in underfloor heating, making it very cosy. They’ve changed the windows and also changed the fireplace in the living room.
Several areas are split-level, including the hall and the kitchen/dining room. They have lovely landing spaces which afford glimpses of the outdoors, and there is an easy flow between all areas of the house. They’ve added several sets of glass doors leading to the magnificent garden which is mainly Simone’s work. “There are two-and-a-half acres here but there was no garden as such when we bought the house — we’ve done the whole garden. We’ve done it gradually, making paths — we dug out the paths ourselves — then we added the hornbeam path, the topiary hedging and the gazebo,” says Simone.
She also added several herbaceous borders, a rockery and there is a fountain in the courtyard outside the gallery. Simone had the idea of building an outline of concrete behind the fountain, but most of the space is bare, creating a frame, all the better to show off the garden.
In the house, they’ve opted for a mainly white decor to maximise light and to show off the many pieces of art they’ve picked up abroad — they still love to travel; it’s the only time they’re not working.
Interestingly, there’s hardly a piece of Simone’s own work hanging on the walls. “I wouldn’t really hang my own work. I’d be too self-critical,” she insists in all modesty.
Fortunately she has a ton of fans worldwide, all extremely happy to hang her work on their walls.
See simonewalsh.net