Kilcullen Diary: Elaine’s art classes have a global travel texture

Art teaching in South Africa.

If travel adds texture to life and art — and there really is no doubt that it does — then Elaine Cowper’s family are all woven into a rich tapestry indeed, writes Brian Byrne. A wealth of experience which should greatly add to the art classes for young people which Elaine is starting from 6 November in Scoil Bhride.

Elaine has strong links with Kilcullen. Her late mother was Margaret Dowling from the Cross Roads, where Nichola Kennedy’s optometrist business is today. Her father was an architect in Naas and her mother a radiographer in Naas Hospital, but they moved to South Africa where Elaine and her brothers were born. Elaine recalls that her childhood was spent ‘running around bare-foot, climbing trees’. Her parents moved back to Ireland in 1979, and Elaine went to both primary and secondary school in Kilcullen, in the process cementing contact with her Dowling relatives. These include her aunt, Finola Dunphy, who for many years operated a drapery store in KIlcullen.

Two of Elaine’s children with a friend in Yangshou, China.

In subsequent years, Elaine moved back to South Africa. She and her husband Brad — a professional artist — and their children have lived and travelled in many countries, Elaine working in a number of international schools in both Africa and China.

Meeting the locals while overlanding.

“We used to travel extensively with the children during the school holidays,” she told the Diary. “So we were exposed to a variety of different cultures. We also went on a three-month over-landing trip through a number of Southern African countries in a Land Rover and slept in roof tents. I am a great believer in experiential learning and my children gained so much from this experience and it fuelled their imagination as well as that of my husband and myself.”

‘Experiential learning’ in Africa.

The family has been living in Ireland for a couple of years and currently reside in Old Kilcullen.

Elaine’s art classes are aimed at teenagers, and at students who may be working on a portfolio for art college. They will be in the pre-fab at Scoil Bhride and given after school hours in two-hour sessions.

“I have been doing some work in Cross & Passion College over the last year or so, and I think there’s a requirement to be filled for students in portfolio preparation, both for those who want to try for art college, and also for those who want to improve their art grade.” She hopes that she could build up a teaching business in this space.

Elaine can be contacted at elainecowper@yahoo.com, 083 4829333, or 045481219.