Birthday gift dilemma leads to new business for Carlow woman
For one Co. Carlow woman, a birthday present for her farmer dad mapped out a whole new business venture.
Edel Fenelon is an artist who specialises in hand-drawn farm maps and house portraits.
She told Agriland: "My work focuses on capturing and preserving the history, memories, and heritage of farming families through detailed, personal artwork.
With her dad's birthday coming up, she struggled to come up with the perfect present.
"Once again, I had absolutely no idea what to get him. What do you buy for a rural, down-to-earth farmer who has little to no interest in material things?
"He loves to hike, but after 20 years of getting hiking socks and farming tools, it was time for something more heartfelt.
"Instead of finding something meaningful to give him, I decided to create something meaningful: his farm and his land, with credit to mum as it was her idea," Edel said.
Farmland maps
Using Google Maps and an old aerial map, she started drawing the farmland.
"I added the field names, because what farmer doesn’t name their fields, acres, landmarks, and the old Gaelic house names.
"I drew his childhood home, which has stood for over 100 years, and the home he lives in now, one he built with his own hands.
And so the very first house and farm map portrait was born," Edel recounted.
The reaction was overwhelmingly positive.
"He loved it. Friends loved it. And I loved creating it," she said.
I shared it on Instagram and the requests started coming in. I never expected a birthday present for my dad to turn into a business."
Every farm map is drawn to scale and includes field names, family names, townlands, landmarks, acreage, and other custom details.
Creative background
Edel grew up on a cattle farm in the village of Myshall in Co. Carlow.
"My dad is the farmer of the family, it was passed down to him from his father," she said.
"I’ve loved art for as long as I can remember.
"Growing up, there were always great art opportunities in our area: Community Games art competitions and the Tinahely Agricultural Show arts and crafts section, events I entered every year and loved.
"I used to be devastated as a child when the competitions ended and I had to wait another full year to enter again. I was pretty much always surrounded by creativity and opportunities to make art," she said.
So it was no surprise when Edel announced after school that she wanted to study at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin.
"I spent four great years there studying fine art media. After graduating, I worked in the design industry for a year, but I wasn’t ready to settle into a career just yet," she recalled.
"Instead, I packed a backpack and went travelling the world."
Her adventures lasted 3.5 years across Asia, New Zealand, and Canada.
"Along the way I ended up on a tiny island off the coast of Cambodia. And when I say tiny, I mean no cars, no WiFi, and not always running water. But somehow, it stole my heart," she said.
"I stayed on that island for six months working in a hostel, painting and helping decorate their interior, all in exchange for free food and accommodation.
"I was fed, sheltered, and genuinely needed nothing more. All my days were spent doing art. It was my first real taste of living as an artist.
"A seed was planted. I realised it was actually possible," said Edel.
Building a business
Edel later moved to Germany, to her husband’s hometown, during Covid-19.
"Work was extremely hard to find with heavy lockdowns in place, and the not so trivial fact that I couldn’t speak a word of German," she said.
"So, I set up an Instagram account and slowly started sharing artwork and selling a few things online, but still not really as an established artist."
That all started to change once the farm map and house portrait drawings came to life.
The beginning of farm map portraits and the establishment of Art by Edel had come about in a personal and unexpected way.
Commissions
She now take commissions for house portraits, oil painting portraits, and wedding venue drawings, but farm maps are the main request.
"When drawing a farm map, it's not just mapping land, it's mapping stories," she said.
"They’re a visual representation of years - often generations - of hard work and dedication.
"Whether it’s a farm that has been passed down or a newly built home, every piece tells a story. They speak not only of family history but of an older Ireland."
The artist said she loves reading through the field names to glimpse past lives and forgotten stories.
Fields like 'The Kiln Field', 'The Tanners', or 'The Brick Field' hint at trades and crafts from the past.
However, Edel said: "My favourites are the fields named after people: Maggie’s Corner, Molly’s Gap. Who was Maggie? How did she get her own corner? Was Molly her sister? Often, nobody knows.
"Or old features like the 'spy hole' drawn in one of my pieces, a small opening in the jamb wall beside the hearth in old Irish homes.
"It sheltered those sitting by the fire from the draught while letting them see who was coming to the door. I adore these little snippets of the past.
"There’s really something special about getting to map Ireland, gathering family histories, memories, and old Irish stories," Edel contended.
Creative process
The process involves a chat about who the drawing is for and what the occasion is.
"They send over reference photos of the farmhouse, a Google Maps screenshot of the land or an aerial photo, and a numbered list with field names and landmarks.
"More personal details are often added, such as the farm dogs or features of the house that date back to olden days," she said.
Once all these details are confirmed, Edel begins the sketch.
"Everything is hand-drawn. Once the sketch is complete, I scan the drawing and use Photoshop to add the field names and house names," she explained.
It is then sent to be professionally printed on Hahnemühle fine art paper.
A farm map can take anywhere between 11-16 hours for drawing, editing and printing.
This varies depending on the size and complexity of the request.
"The turnaround time is usually 4–5 weeks from receiving reference photos to the artwork arriving at a customer’s door," Edel said.
Having married her German partner three months ago, Edel is living just outside of Frankfurt at present, working from there with 100% Irish-located customers.
However, plans to move home are always on the cards.
"Luckily, it’s only a one hour 40 minute flight home, so I’m back several times every year," she said.
Edel doesn't have any major plans for the future of her venture.
"But that’s the amazing thing about art, you don’t know where it will lead you," she said.
"If someone would have told me five years ago that I would be drawing farm maps for a living, I probably wouldn't have believed them. I thought my farming days were over.
"Not that I was ever the biggest help on the farm growing up. I think I'm more suited to art farming than actual farming. Dad can probably attest to that," she added.
A lot of her work features farm dogs, chickens, and horses.
One of her more unusual commissions was to create an oil painting of a photo of "a sheepdog spending quality time with his best friend, a heifer".
Recently she completed a drawing of a farmhouse for a woman where the farm she wanted drawn was built in the 1800s, and the house did not exist anymore.
"We worked together based on small snippets of old photos and her memories of the place to recreate a house and surrounding farm from her childhood," said Edel.
