Carmel T. Madigan has been developing her arts practice since 2000. In 2020, she developed a 20 year virtual retrospective of her work which can be viewed on her website. Prior to that she worked as a management and financial accountant at Tellabs Ltd (1988-1994) before setting up a digital graphic design studio in Ennis (Designer Print; 1994-2000).
Carmel uses the imagery and creativity of her own mind in the generation of her own artworks. She believes that her responses to nature are by and large celebratory, reflective and emotive. She has thoroughly researched her subject matter and has published two books on Co Clare’s marine and wild flora. Her passion for her subject matter has gained her access to national organisations like the Marine Institute and the Heritage Council to develop and deliver environmental education programmes in schools. Carmel’s work has been collected by many prestigious organizations as listed above, and it has travelled throughout the world, and especially to the US and the UK through gallery sales.
With a body of work spanning over 1000 original pieces, it has been dispersed far and wide with many private collectors as well as public. She believes in continuous development, using all the skills she has learned and developed throughout her long career, which has spanned for almost 40 years. She works mainly from her Barefield Creative Studio, but she also operates a summer studio at Loophead, where she hosts summer art courses for visitors. She continuously builds on those skills, whether they be digital, studio based, commercial or environmental research based. As an educator, she continuously seeks to develop new course content, new methods, because ‘with so many creative ideas flowing, why would anyone want to keep doing the same thing!’