Elizabeth Taggart tells Brian McAvera that the seaside village of Donaghadee in which she grew up holds the key to what drives her as a painter
Brian McAvera: You were born in 1943 in the Co Down village of Donaghadee. Werethere any experiences duringyour childhood that were formative for your art? Elizabeth Taggart: I grew up in a small seaside village. My childhood, in the late 1940s
and early 1950s, was in the pre-television era. Live entertainment, particularly in the summer, was still very much part of seaside life. Small travelling circuses would come to the village several times a year, but only for one day. They would find a field, erect their tent, have an afternoon and evening performance, take everything down and move on the next day. Funfairs with dodgems, rifle ranges, carousels, ghost-trains etc would install themselves for the season. My particular favourite of the summer distractions was the Pierrot show.
Rose Jane Leigh’s importance as an early pioneering Wexford landscape painter and her choice of studying in Antwerp placed her at the centre of the major art movements of the 19th and early 20th century, writes Mary Stratton Ryan
