The first painting I remember doing was when I was 3 in nursery. Upon looking at my page of red paint with a black splodge, my nursery teacher asked 'what's this Jennifer?' to which I responded 'a lion...in a cave'.
Growing up, birthday requests were not of dolls or prams, but sketchbooks, paint brushes and bug catchers. I was forever trying to capture the world around me with the tip of a pencil or paintbrush. I was extremely lucky to grow up in the beautiful countryside of Northern Ireland, with parents who made sure we got plenty of fresh air come rain or shine so had a lot sources for inspiration.
More recently, since moving to Bristol, graduating university and getting a full time job, my art took a backseat. My paints always came with me but with no focus for my art, pieces were left unfinished or tossed in the bin after being scribbled over in frustration. In 2013 I decided I needed to pick it back up again; everyone was always asking me if I still painted and after finally nailing a piece of my work I painted at 16 to my wall I fell back in love with my hobby.
Selling my art was always something I viewed as being a few years off, but with so many people commenting on the piece in the bathroom and asking if I'd paint something for them, I thought I'd take a leap and start selling. I'm still getting to grips with my technique again, anyone who draws or paints knows that you definitely get better the more you do it, so I'm in a period of finding my feet again!
Right now you'll notice I'm concentrating on animals. In school we had to choose topics and mine consisted of woodland, boats, people and old buildings in Ireland. Animals were always a subject I wanted to study and I'm enjoying building up to the point where I will be confident to accept commissions! Buildings are my second passion, to the point where I was supposed to study an architecture degree but opted for business instead, so expect to see more of them in the future.