An artist's journey

The fabulous Nun’s walkway in Ballyjamesduff provides abundant inspiration for budding artist Lorraine Coleman.

The historic trail fills Lorraine and her dog Lapaí’s lives with colour, inspiration and companionship.

The 31-year-old couldn't possibly estimate the number of times the pair have embarked upon the walk, which has taken on a new meaning since she began painting again.

Lapaí, meaning paws in Irish, is a Bernese Mountain Dog who is the inspiration behind Lorraine’s paintings and the mascot of Paws & Paint, his owner's emerging art enterprise.

Sheer size makes Lapaí almost the full of Lorraine’s Ballyjamesduff kitchen, where she does most of her paintings.

Aside from having the business name ‘Paws & Paint’ reflect Lapaí’s place in the business, it also has a homophonic meaning as Lorraine uses her love of paint, colour, design and patterns to take time out from the everyday.

“When I’m out and about for walks, Lapaí just loves to stop and sniff and I used to be going ‘Come on!' I actually stop with him now and notice the colour around, even in the local areas.

“As cliche as it sounds painting has actually made me stop and notice the colours and flowers,” she says. “It was literally to capture that feeling of stopping everything and painting, like pause and paint.”

Her home is filled with pieces from Irish artists, especially those of local artist Kim Gaffney, a fellow Bernese Mountain Dog lover whom Lorraine is inspired by - although she is quick to add she is not at Kim’s standard.

“Not yet,” The Anglo-Celt suggests, admiring the display of Lorraine’s work laid out on the kitchen table. Animals, nature and vivid colour jump out, particularly from a black canvas Lorraine is working on. A large lion’s head with shades of blue, pink, green, brown, orange, yellow and notes of white is staring out at the distance. Colour is Lorraine’s stamp.

“The colours, the vibrancy for me is what stands out from them.

“Oftentimes when people get a painting, they're putting it on a wall with one colour.

“Even the lion, it’s quite a serious animal but you throw colour and flowers on it and you have that mix of something that’s lovely to hang up but at the same time has that strength in it.”

With a background in psychology and working as a HR Advisor and Head of Employee Development with schools admin software company Aladdin, the Ballyjamesduff native loves the “balance” her new venture offers between working with people and painting.

“It’s lovely to have that balance of that work full time and this work when I have spare time.”

“My background is in psychology and we’ve a lot going on this year with building a house and we’re getting married at the end of the year, but I found that when I started painting literally everything stopped - it just reminded me of that flow that we used to talk about, even in positive psychology.

“That feeling of just getting captured in it, it’s a sign of something you really love and something that’s a sort of mindfulness and I just found it so relaxing.”

Her fiancé Colin encouraged her to set up Paws & Paint on Instagram and Facebook.

“On Instagram it’s mad how quickly things pick up when you put something online,” she said.

She started out her venture in March, posting pictures of her prints on her own personal Instagram page.

“They were gone within two or three days,” she reported.

She was “not at all” expecting the response to her work.

“One thing that I am really working on is just confidence with it.

“It takes other people to say it to me, it was my fiance Colin that said ‘would you not sell them?.’

“I didn’t have the confidence I suppose to actually sell,” she said.

She’s not sure where her painting career will take her, but for now she’s enjoying the process.

“I have three older brothers and they all have their own business, they’ve kind of shown me, while this is brilliant, it’s definitely a side thing. I don't think I could manage my own business.

“I’ve seen the work that the three of them have had to put into their businesses and again I’m so happy with my current job and I love having this as a hobby and a passion.”

“It’s a huge learning curve for me.

“I don’t know where it will take me from here but I’m really enjoying it.”