Orla lives in County Limerick and holds a Degree in Fine Art Painting from the Limerick Institute of Technology. She has taken part in numerous exhibitions around Ireland and in Holland since the early 90's including; The Castle Art Gallery in 1992, Groeningen Public Library in 1996, De Oudo Ulo in 1996, Art Gallery Carrick-on-Suir 2001, The Weigh House, Limerick in 2001, Fusion Gallery Limerick in 2002 - 2005, The Hunt Museum Limerick in 2003 and The Tipperary Arts centre in 2004. Set Dance News commissioned 3 illustrations from Orla.

Orla's work is strongly figurative, she is inspired by people simply going about their daily business. Some of the images are illustrated further by the addition of text and other symbols, as a way to encourage the viewer's speculation about the characters shown.