About me

From a young child I had one passion and that was art, particularly painting. It wasn’t just creating a picture with fluid colour as all children seem to enjoy, but everything associated with that word art. I loved looking through picture books of Renaissance and Impressionist works and fell in love with Monet and Renoir immediately. As a seven year old I knew the names of all the major French painters and some of the Italian and Dutch also.  I loved the light, the brushstrokes and the exotic images. I must have visited the National Gallery in Dublin almost every week in my teenage years. I couldn’t get enough. I knew where every painting hung and missed them when they were removed for conservation. My first visit to France as a sixteen year old brought me to the Louvre and the Modern museum which has been replaced by the Musee D’orsay. That visit was one of the most frustrating of my life as I had only thirty minutes to see all the works that I knew from books. I remember my Father pulling me away from Luncheon on the Grass by Manet because we had to catch a train.

            It wasn’t until I was in my thirties that I was finally able to see those works at my leisure. It was thanks to my sister who brought me on day trips to London, Edinburgh, and some other European cities. Not only did it satisfy a deep need but it created an addiction, because for the next few years I visited museums and galleries all over Europe making sketches and notes. To date I have nineteen notebooks full of drawings comments and observations.  

            One of the things that I love about looking at a painting is that there is always more to see. The painting can relay a story, make a comment, reveal a state of mind, but it will affect us in a personal way if we let it. From teaching art and art history over the years, I have found that children and young teens can reveal some of the secrets of a painting that I may not see. I love this.