Having first seen one of Pat Brennan's pictures on someone else's journal, Deb and I took a look at her gallery and were immediately struck by the individuality of style in her works of art. We were inspired to ask her to do an interview with us, and were thrilled when she agreed to do so.

Pat does both digital and traditional artwork (which makes categorising this article a little difficult, although we've chosen digital, since that's mostly what's on show), and we are sure that anyone looking through her gallery will be delighted with the treats that can be found there.

The Interview

1. How long have you been doing art?

I have always been an artist, I never really wanted to be or do anything else. One of my earliest memories involves crayons, clean walls, and sharp words!

2. What, or who, got you started and influenced your work?

Like I said, I have always painted and drawn; my father was quite artistic and encouraged me a lot. I remember a teacher Mr Turner (no relation to THE Turner) very clearly for his talent and commitment to art in general and the way he made it clear to us that art had a very important place in the grand scheme of things.

3. Do you have any formal training as an artist?

Not really, I have taken every opportunity to attend life drawing classes and in 2001 did an art foundation course as a mature student that was great! I had no intentions of going on a degree course I just wanted the experience that I felt I had somehow missed out on by marrying young and raising a family.

4. What software do you normally use for preparing a work for display on the internet?

I use Photoshop and Corel Painter, but thanks to the generosity of my daughter I have everything you can think of in the way of software lurking on my computer.

5. Do you have a preference for the type of picture you like to create?

The short answer is no! But I do have fads, I’m in the middle of a full blown digital obsession at the moment. In my ‘real’ life I am best known for traditional work. I do portrait commissions, people, animals, anything really, in any medium the client prefers. There are a few examples at the back of my gallery.

6. Can you give a brief overview of the various techniques you use?

I use everything and anything to get the image I have in my mind to appear on screen. I’m sure people who consider themselves masters of the craft of digital artwork would weep if they watched me work. Sometimes I sketch it out on paper sometimes I don’t. I do consistently flip back and forth between Photoshop and Corel.

7. What sort of things inspire your artwork?

I have a’butterfly mind’ I can be inspired by anything from a beautiful stock image, a phrase, song title, a challenge. Most people who know me know I have a ‘thing’ for Carravagio but I’m not alone in that. Strangely the most common answer to this question put to other artists is music. I love music of all kinds but it doesn’t influence my artwork!

8. Do you have any advice for aspiring artists?

Work hard and practice your craft at every opportunity, almost goes without saying. You have to be totally focused, this is very hard to do when you are young and there are so many exciting distractions. Never let anyone tell you art is not a proper job. Network! An artist works in splendid isolation a lot of the time so take every opportunity to meet and learn from like minded people.

9. Do you have any future plans for diversifying your artwork?

I love learning new things, who knows where my ‘butterfly mind’ will take me next. I have no grand plan, I just enjoy what I do.

10.Is there anything else you'd like to add about what you do?

I would like to say how much I enjoy being a member of Deviantart The friends I have made here are wonderful. The support I get is astounding to me.

Many of you know that apart from my daughter I have no-one who shares my passion for all things digital so being part of this community is very important to me. I would not know if anything was good bad or indifferent without the feedback I receive here so thank you, all of you.

The stock art provided by the members here is so unbelievably good I cannot praise it enough. I will not make links to my favourite artists I’m afraid of inadvertently leaving someone out, but there are many!

Thank you for aking me to do the interview I'm honoured

Here are some examples of Pat's artwork from her gallery

ENJOY Folks!