Bea Orpen
Bea Orpen was born in Carrickmines, Co. Dublin in 1913. Orpen took private lessons on the fundamentals of colour and line with Lilian Davidson, going on to the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art studying with Sean O'Sullivan. Orpen moved to London and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, the School of Typography and textile and commercial design at the London County Council Central School of Arts and Crafts. www.whytes.ie Orpen returned to Ireland in 1939, having her first solo show that October in the Country Shop, St Stephen's Green. Bea Orpen worked primarily in gouache and watercolour and exhibited religiously with the Watercolour society from 1936 to 1980. Orpen suffered a brain haemorrhage in May 1978, which left her permanently invalided and hospitalised. She was elected an honorary member of the RHA in May 1980. Two retrospectives of her work were held, in 1981 at the Gorry gallery, Dublin, and in 1995 at the Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda. A building on the Dublin City University campus is named in her honour. www.whytes.ie