My eccentric Dublin family (Fay & Dowling) was a founder member of The Abbey; Ireland’s National Theatre with links to Augustus John’s bohemian café society in Chelsea, London where I lived a highly stimulating but bizarre existence with my captivating mother ‘Biddy’, counteracted by staid influences of a Montessori convent education in Kensington. However, after being made the ward of the writer Mary Wesley I was ‘thrown to the wolves’ in a desolate suburb of South London but aided with a major County Scholarship to study Fine Art at London University (Goldsmiths) Thesis: William Morris and a further post-graduate teaching year at Middlesex University (Hornsey) Thesis: Applied Maths through Art & Play I crawled out of this quagmire. Known primarily for vibrant, expressionistic pastel flower paintings I was commissioned in 1995 by David & Charles publishers to write Vibrant Flower Painting ISBN 0 7153 0247 7 (available in libraries) and later invited to talk about my artwork on BBC Radio 4 Brushstrokes produced by Jenny DeYong; although still using pastel I now veer toward oil/acrylic and collage, painting larger urban and rural landscape, depicting buildings, not in a predictable sombre topographical manner but with emphasis on their quirkiness. At art school my academic nude studies were recognized but I was reticent in promoting more humorous, perhaps even mischievous erotica based on fables, anecdote and humanistic psychology; I hold a professional certificate in psychotherapy counselling. Today, with numerous art awards, teaching, lecturing and publishing experience behind me I have decided to freelance with sponsored workshops, private and corporate commissions, choosing assignments that hopefully nurture well-being, integrity and artistic independence.

Courtesy of the artist’s website.