April brings a sweet touch to Kilrush Library

ARTIST April Jarocka is adamant she cannot be held accountable for instant changes to the eating habits of anybody who happens to view her work.
“I accept no responsibility for diets ruined,” April told The Clare Champion in Kilrush last Saturday.
Given the Cappa-based artist’s skilled preoccupation with painting chocolate bars, she does acknowledge that people who visit her exhibition at Kilrush Library until March 1, might be unable to withstand a shop-visiting urge upon leaving.
“If you see a painting of food, it makes you want that particular item. I’ve had a lot of comments from people that it has ruined their diets. They want to go out and buy a Twix or they want to eat a Mars bar,” she revealed.
With around 30 chocolate paintings hanging in the library, local shops might have to stock up on a few key items in the event of a rush on them.
“I had nothing to do last year and I thought ‘I’ll start painting some chocolate’,” is April’s succinct explanation behind her painting spree. “One chocolate bar led to another. The first one didn’t look too bad and I said I’d try a Twix. Then it was a packet of Maltesers and a Turkish Delight. It just went on from there until, eventually, I had done 10 paintings,” she added.
Originally from Polperro in Cornwall, April moved to Cappa in 1998 with her husband. Years earlier she had studied for a year at the College of Art in Dundee, before taking to nursing.
“Deep down I always believed I was an artist, although I loved working with people. I worked in a rheumatology ward and in a trauma ward in Reading but I always felt that I should be an artist. It comes more naturally to me,” April reflected.
She has yet to be artistically inspired by her nursing past. “When I start painting medical supplies, maybe. It’s a possibility,” she laughed.
Between work and family life, April didn’t wield a brush for a decade. About eight years ago, her father perhaps sensed that his daughter might like to get back in touch with her artistic side.
“After my mother passed away in 2004, my father bought me a big box of oils, acrylics, canvases and brushes,” she recalled. However, it took time for April to unearth her love of painting.
“One day I went down to the seashore and I looked at the stones. I thought ‘wow’. I ran home, got my camera and I made a stone stack. I just painted from the photograph. It came out really realistic,” she said, noting that many of her paintings are photo realistic.
“If you look at all the different stones on the beach they’re all individual. They’re so pretty and they must be millions of years old when you think about it,” is how April encapsulates her love of stones.
These days, April likes nothing better than buying lollipops. It gives her a reason to visit sweet shops and return home inspired.
“There’s been an explosion of sweet shops around Ireland and the UK. When I go into these places it’s just wonderful. I love all the colours and I just want to paint everything. So I’d buy a few lollipops and take them home. But I don’t eat them. I’m not a lollipop person. The kids were looking at me going ‘are you finished with that lollipop yet mum?’”
Last year, April linked up with a gallery in Newcastle Upon Tyne and this year, she is due to team up with a gallery in Yorkshire.
“I took the paintings over to be framed in England and then I drove from Buckinghamshire all the way up to Newcastle Upon Tyne They were in an exhibition last summer. They were there for five or six months and I had other work in with them as well,” she explained.
When April moved to Kilrush 14 years ago she knew nobody. She loves it back west though and is particularly fond of how relaxed her adopted home is.
“It’s a good place to be creative. You’re not stressed out too much because stress can have an effect on creativity. When you’re more relaxed you can be more creative. The area is just stunning. You can draw inspiration from the fantastic coastline we have.”
While it might be tricky for April to dissociate herself from numerous brands of chocolate bars, she insists there is life after Polo Mints and Toblerone.
“I specialise in still life, although I can paint and draw portraits. Nobody has ever really asked me to but it is something that I would like to do this year,” April said, perhaps keen to escape the wrappings of chocolate.
April’s exhibition will run in Kilrush Library until Thursday, March 1 and 20% of all sales from the exhibition will go towards supporting the Children’s Medical and Research Foundation at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin. For more information check www.apriljarocka.com.