Orla Egan was born in Dublin and now lives in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal. She spent most of her childhood in the West of Ireland.
Orla is a figurative painter and works in the primitive tradition. Her childhood spent in the west of Ireland has a strong influence on her pictures depicting fishermen, markets, the circus and going to the carnival. Her interest in the social history of Ireland in the 1900s is shown in many of her pictures. In her paintings, she attempts to capture on board the daily life of people, some of whom are immortalized by J.M. Synge in "Riders To The Sea" and who lived in Ireland between 1880 and the early part of the 20th century.

Orla was a member of a group of artists who attended weekly sessions at The Glebe Gallery under tutors Chris Wilson and Willaim Gallagher between 1986 - 2000. She also attended a weekend course in 1995 with Melita De Naro, and Nigel Massey, graduates of The Royal Academy London.

In October 2007 Orla held her first solo exhibition in Dublin with the Leinster Gallery and the Sandford Gallery.

Orla Egan first began exhibiting her work locally in 1990 and has since been represented in exhibitions all over Ireland, including the Annual Exhibition at the RHA. She has also exhibited in the Thomas Gallery in London.

Exhibitions include group shows in Thompson's Gallery, London; the auction for the Children's Hospital Belfast, organised by the joint North/South Secretariat in Armagh; the auction for the Children's Hospital in Pakistan organised by the cricketer Imam Khan; the Special Olympics and the Dublin Education Together Schools.

COLLECTIONS

Duchas, Glebe Gallery Collection
The Great Blasket Centre, Kerry
Guardian P.M.P.A. Insurance Co.
Suzanne MacDougald (The Solomon Gallery)
Mrs. Jean Kennedy Smith
Martin Mooney
Melita De Naro
Brian Fallon
Bernadette Madden
John De Vere White & Fergus Ahern
Michael D. Higgins T.D.
Martin Ferguson
E.S.B
O.P.W.