The artists selected by curator Clare Hartigan for POPA this year travelled to Stradbally Hall two weeks before the festival. We had from Tuesday to Friday to create our artworks to be hung during the Picnic. One each, measuring 12ft x 8ft! Mammoth!. I love painting large but this was to be my largest yet.

All was good until the day before when I had a major panic! How was I going to paint this with basic outdoor paints? Was my image going to work? How on earth was I going to do it on time? What had I signed myself up for? But I had signed myself up, so I just had to get on with it. And how happy I am that I did!

My partners in crime were Adrienne Finnerty, Myra O’Reilly, Michelle Panda-Kelly and Des MacMahon. We were accommodated in the attic of Stradbally Hall itself! Very Downtown Abbey I have to say.

We were set up in the barn, a very large indoor show jumping arena. The boards were already made up for us by the crew and coated with a basic white primer. And we painted all day, every day sometimes until 9.30 at night when we would break for the chats and a few glasses of wine. We were regularly visited by the crew and often joined by '“Squiggly” the resident sign maker for the festival, who provided us with incredible soundtracks for the week.

And there you have it. We had a ball and all finished our pieces on time. It was an incredible experience and such a pleasure to share it with such wonderful individuals. And bonus ….we all got free Electric Picnic Tickets for the weekend!