If you haven’t heard of Annie West, you have probably seen her work. She is one of Ireland’s foremost cartoonists and is renowned for her witty and humorous drawings, full of detail and colour.

She moved to Co Sligo after marrying her husband, Alan, and the pair quickly came to one agreement.

“The office is my area, but I’m not allowed in the farmyard,” she laughs. “I had great ideas of farming when I moved there, but it turned out that I’m useless. I can stand in the odd gap though.”

Annie decided instead to put her skills to use, and capture farming and the countryside in her art. Due to a hatred of aerial photographs, she illustrates farms for anyone who sends her a GPS of their land – field names included. A recent venture has seen Annie design maps for Sligo County Council.

“Michael Carty from the council has been working very hard to improve walks around Sligo, and he approached me to make these unusual maps. We give people a bird’s-eye view of walks on boards, so they know what they are up against. Then dotted on the maps are things to see in the area,” she says.

Last year, Annie released her book, Yeats in Love, which lampoons the poet’s enduring passion for Maud Gonne and also marked his 150th birthday. It’s full of wry illustrations of a hopeless Yeats, who pursues an uninterested Gonne in vain.

“Being from Sligo, I have a bit of an obsession with Yeats. I thought to myself, there has to be something funny about this guy. I decided to look at his love for Maud Gonne,” she explains.

“Also, they were both very annoying people and easy to make fun of. I think the book cured my obsession though.”

Annie mostly sells prints via her website, while Twitter is the main source of her commissions. She has become known for her well-timed tweets and satirical sketches on social media.

“Basically, Vincent Browne says something and that’s it, I’ve drawn a cartoon and posted it on Twitter. People expect it from me at this stage,” she says. “I think around 90% of my commissions are through Twitter now because of that.

“Some artists get their intern to tweet for them and I think that is such a bad idea. People want to talk to you, not someone on work experience. This is your livelihood,” adds Annie.

“For me, however, it’s not all commercial. It’s the best fun ever. Once you stay out of arguments with people, you’ll be fine.”

From exhibitions to social media, the business has evolved since Annie first started out.

“I’ve been at this for 20 years. I’ve gotten to the stage now where I’m so busy, but it’s not what I’ve expected I’d be doing,” she says. “I used to draw children’s illustrations, but I think the grown-up stuff is much more fun.”

WIN

To celebrate the Plouging Championship, Annie West is giving away three limited edition pieces of fine art which capture the fun of the event.

For your chance to win, send us a postcard with your name, address and phone number to Annie West Competition, Irish Farmers Journal, Irish Farm Centre, Bluebell, Dublin 12, by Wednesday 30 September.

Follow Annie on Twitter: @AnnieWestDotCom. Visit www.anniewest.com

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All about Ploughing 2015