Get To Know Me

I’m aware, not all of you know me that well. Let me take the time to introduce myself properly and tell you my story.  my name is Breda,  I am from Dublin but have found a new life in Co Cavan. 

Art didn't come naturally to me, but I loved it and had a vivid imagination.  Over time I grew my skills in drawing and painting.   As a teenager I would sit listening to music and draw my favourite bands.  However, life took me in different direction.  I travelled to the States where a friend of mine introduced me to Interior design, a concept which was far from my life in a working class family from Drimnagh.  It fasinated me!  The possibility of working in a creative business.   So I enrolled in a year long course and studied interior design. This was back in 1991.   Once I graduated I found work in the retail sector working in interior decor businesses.   

Then in 1996, I lost my Mother.  I only mention this, as again it took me away from the life I really wanted.  I needed to get a mortgage and buy my sister out of the home which was left to both of us.  I found work in insurance and worked there for about 12 years, until the oppertunity came along for me to take redundancy, which I did.  I thought, "this is it!".  this is the chance to truly change my life and study design. So I enolled in a 4 year course in interior design with Griffith College Dublin. This was 2010 and Ireland was in the deep recession.  As I'm sure you remember.  I completed my degree however, there was no work in that field with the exception of intrenships, which is great when you're in your 20s but I was in my late 40s with a mortgage, so I ended up back in the " day job" .   I ended up working in Accounts Payable.  Yikes!  I don't regret these jobs, as I have made life long friends from working in them and worked with friendly and talented people in their chosen fields.  

Then Covid hit.  Well, we all know what happened there, some truly heartbreaking stories. Thankfully no one I knew was hit by this.   I found the first lockdown quite zen like.  Working from home gave me time to relax more,  so I pulled out the paints that had been sitting idle for quite some time.  To be honest, the first few were not great!  I was definitely out of practice.  But this time I was determined to go back to something I loved.   Painting again,  I discovered I loved old disstressed buildings and working in pastels.  Over those two years my work got better and I was happy to start a small sideline business called Breda O’Flaherty Studio,  Ha!  Original I know! In 2023 two of my paintings were featured in book called the Artist Eye on Kerry. This was a very proud moment and proof I was going in the right direction.  

However, my work situation changed in April 2024 when the company I was working for was sold and we were made redundant.  I took this as an opportunity to work on the studio fulltime and decided to move out of Dublin, where I had lived most of my life. Also that mortgage was still there.  It took me some time find the right house but I did and have moved into it and have a large space for my studio. where I can create.  Now that I am settled in Cavan, I am concentrating on growing Breda O’Flaherty Studio .  Selling my original artworks and limited-edition prints on-line and at local markets.  My work is growing and changing as it should, but now I can say, I am an artist and wiorking at something I truly love.  

 I also got diagnosed with ADHD in April 24.  That has been an eye opener.  Finding out all the flaws I thought I had,  were infact symptoms of this "disorder" and I am truly starting to understand myself better.  

Currently some of my prints are stocked by Connolly Brothers in Cavan Town, G Fitzsimons in Virginia and Mulberry on Main in Kells.   

I hope to be announcing a solo exhibition soon and I have a stall in the National Ploughing compitions.