Patricia Hurl: ‘I was talked into buying a cottage that was “safe as gold” – it took 10 years to sell it and move to Dublin’

Patricia Hurl has been one of ­Ireland’s most accomplished artists since the 1980s. Last year, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) held a major retrospective exhibition of her work, called Irish Gothic. It featured some 70 works, including The Company Wife painting from 1986. IMMA, which purchased a number of her works, and the Tipperary Arts Office are bringing Irish Gothic to the South Tipperary Arts Centre in Clonmel and the Source in Thurles in May and June. Hurl, who is part of a collective of older creative women called Na Cailleacha, lives on the Tipperary-Offaly border with her partner Therry Rudin, a Swiss artist.