From there to here, or three score years and ten.

I was born in 1941, an exciting time (for a child). My earliest memory ofcolour comes from a storey in a children's annual, it was about the disasterous effect of mixing the wrong colours. I was instantly hooked, painting and drawing became my favourite passtime.
School years were uninspiring. On leaving school, I fell headfirst into Rock and Roll andTeddy Boys. Aged seventeen I met the love of my life, a man from Erin, who showed me a life to love, and my education began, museums, art galleries, the opera, theatre and books, lots of books.

When I was twenty we married and finances forced my Irish dreamer to
Become a school teacher. Five children and fourteen years later my education had slowed down somewhat, but I managed to gain «a» levels in Art and English Litrature. My youngest son was born with Cystic Fibrosisand in 1986 my husband developed Parkinson's Disease, so in the yearsbetween 1975 and 1991, I was fully occupied, no more art galleries for a while. My youngest son died in 1991, my husband in 1992. Aged fifty I now needed to earn a living. The next ten years were long, but I went back to art classes and that helped. Consequently, the day I was sixty I threw my hat in the air, handed in my notice, and, with the encouragement of my brother went back to college. What an eye opener! Untill then my interest had been in life drawing and artists such as da Vinci, Michelangelo and el Greco. I now discovered «Modern Art»:Picasso, Dali, Pollock, Hockney, Wahol, Man Ray, Duchamp, Lichtenstien, the list is long, but most important the De Stejl movement, Theo van Doesburg, Bart Van der Leck, GerritRietveld
And my personal favourite, Piet Mondrian with his straight lines and
Bright primary colours. It certainly showed me a side of the art world I hadn't seen before.

On leaving college, I sold my house and went travelling, visiting the museums and art galleries of France, Malta, Greece, Shri-Lanka, Singapore and New Zealand, absorbing as much as I could because at my age who knows if return visits will be possible, hence the glacier walk, whale watching and sky dive, all of which I have every intention of trying again if I can, so watch this space!

I now feel like one of N. Z. Cascading waterfalls, overflowing with ideas and colours, all I need is enough canvas, paint and time.