Paintings by Ronnie Wood, Mark Feehily and other celebrities go under the hammer in secret auction

Art lovers will have the chance to bid on paintings by Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, Westlife’s Mark Feehily, Mary Black and other celebrities in a charity fundraising campaign for the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation.

Incognito 2023, a fundraiser whereby prospective buyers do not know the artist behind their postcard-sized artwork until the collection sells out and the artists are revealed, was launched by the charity in Dublin on Thursday.

Fashion designer Helen Steele, sculptor and painter Mick O’Dea and a collection of other artists from Ireland and worldwide contributed artwork for the 2023 campaign, alongside singer Eimear Quinn and fashion designers Don O’Neill and Paul and William Costelloe.

In its seventh year, Incognito has raised over €860,000 to date to support Jack and Jill families. Funds generated this year are expected to bring the total amount raised by the initiative to €1 million. All pieces are €65 regardless of who the artist is.

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Jessica Heffernan, from Blanchardstown, Dublin, said that Jack and Jill were there from the get-go when her son Aaron, who is now five, was born. Lack of oxygen to the brain at birth caused Aaron to have an extreme hypoxic episode and he was having seizures.

“The organisation has been just amazing. Just the simple tasks – going to the shops, being able to have a shower, the extra five minutes – [Jack and Jill] have been a godsend,” she said.

One of the artists involved in the campaign is primary school teacher-turned-painter, Julianne Guinee, who began painting in 2019 while on maternity leave following the death of her twins, Mabel and Blaise, after they were born premature.

“My boy passed away first, then my little girl spent a few weeks in Crumlin but, during that time, I heard about Jack and Jill,” she said at the launch.

“We never actually came home from the hospital. Ours was not a good story but it started me in my art career.

“I have not taught since 2019 but I think art really has changed my life and I look forward to a wonderful life of art. That is what my twins have given me.”

The sale takes place on Wednesday, April 26th, with a collection of almost 3,000 original pieces of postcard-sized art by over 1,000 artists.

The Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation is an Irish charity that funds and delivers in-home nursing care and respite support for children with severe to profound cognitive delay.

The foundation is with families on “really good days” and on “really sad days,” head of nursing, Saundra Nolan said.