Cara Finnigan Artist

I have been drawing my whole life but only really started painting seriously in the last ten years or so.  I have spent most of my life working in healthcare, striving to improve clinical services, one way or another. A never ending process. Painting and sketching by contrast is extremely rewarding in that it has a beginning, a middle and an end. And of course, at the end you have something very tangible.

I have always loved and been captivated by the nature all around us. The sea and the countryside.  The colours and textures all around us fill me with the same wonder I had as a little girl.  Our planet is a truly beautiful place and I never cease to be amazed by what I see around me.

I love colour.  The colour of fields, as the barley and wheat ripens, glowing that gorgeous gold straw colour. The rape seed flowers in their fluorescent yellow and the bright red poppy fields. They all cry out to be painted. The deep turquoise seas that you see in Cornwall, Devon and the Scottish islands are so gorgeous I am driven to paint them.  Stormy skies and seas, rain soaked streets and houses. All crying out to be painted!

Ever since I was a little girl I have had a fascination with shells and those small pieces of coloured glass that you find hidden beneath rocks and in rock-pools. I have spent many wonderful hours on beaches searching for shells and picking up gems.

There are so many things I want to paint that there isn't enough time to paint them.

I use a variety of paint mediums. Each medium has its own idiosyncrasies. I love the effects that you get with watercolour, the way the paint flows onto the paper and merges with colour already there. I find painting with watercolour to be very relaxing, almost tranquilising. A sense of peace washes over me when I paint with watercolour. Acrylic, on the other hand, for me is much more of an active process. Possibly because I stand up when painting with acrylics? I don’t know the reason but I feel quite energised when using acrylics and in fact can feel exhausted when I have finished painting for the day. Oil, is very similar to acrylics. Pastels are like watercolour. Strange how the different mediums can make you feel.

I totally and completely love painting and I hope you enjoy visiting my website.