As I interview Dublin artist Debbie Chapman, she casually tidies up around her bright and organized studio while chatting about her life and art.

“I was born in Duncannon in Co Wexford. My father was a fisherman and my mother a well known Wexford landscape and seascape painter, Ruby Chapman. We started painting at the same time when I was about fifteen. It happened by chance. She could always draw but had no formal training. I have some beautiful graphite sketches that she did as a teenager of ladies in their ornate ball-gowns. She decided she wanted to do some oil painting classes. The classes were fifteen miles away and at night, so she dragged me with her in case the car broke down. There was an excellent teacher, John Foley, who taught me the basics of colour, oil painting and drawing, and instilled in me a love of painting. He inspired me to explore art further.

“I did a Foundation Art course at college in Waterford but believed at the time that it would be difficult to make a good living from painting and I didn’t want to teach art, so I chose graphic design. I went from college to a job in Waterford and from there on to London where I worked as a design consultant. I stayed in London and in graphics for ten years or so but never lost the desire to paint. Ultimately there were too many creative restrictions in graphic design for me.”

I ask Debbie who would have influenced her work the most. “I would have to say my husband Matt (Lunson). He’s a musician and singer from Tasmania. He has always encouraged me to go with my heart first – especially whenever I have experienced any doubts about my work. I could never imagine being married to someone who was not also creative. More than anything he has taught me to be brave. We met here when I moved back from London. We were both working as waiters to earn a bit of extra cash, and hung around together as friends for about a year. I used to call him “couch-man” because he would sleep on my couch all the time. He moved back to Bondi in Australia and when I travelled to see him, he brought me to Tasmania and we discovered there was a spark. We then moved back to Ireland and a few months later we were married! At that stage I was designing cushions, selling some jewellery and painting. Matt insisted that I should do the one thing that I was truly passionate about rather than hedge my bets. He even asked me: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I said a painter, but still thought that I could never really expect to make a living out of it. He encouraged me to take the leap and he was dead right. I concentrate on painting full time now. Matt does his work in the mornings and looks after our little girl, Maisie Jane, in the afternoons when she gets home from school. We prefer this rather than putting her into childcare. She’s creative too … I think she’ll be a dancer.

“My grandfather was an incredible Irish dancer; he won the All Ireland six times in a row. He was also in the Old IRA at the time and they sent him to jail in England. To keep himself busy he learned to recite the Rosary backwards and he used to make up new Irish dances. He started off on the top floor of the prison but the person underneath him kept complaining, so he ended up on the bottom floor until they let him out with a loaf of bread and he had to make his way back!

“There was a dairy farm in the centre of my village and when I was little I would sneak down there and ask if I could help milk the cows. I have always been fascinated by how calm they are and I think that comes across when I paint them. Ireland is so much more cosmopolitan now and I think the cow paintings really strike a chord with people who, like me, can feel removed at times from their roots.”

Debbie smiled a wide smile and showed me a few of the cow paintings which have evolved to include large circles and other geometric shapes rather than detailed backgrounds. “This” she says, “… is purely for structure and balance while allowing the main focus to remain on the detail of the foreground images.”

“We were dividing our time between Dublin and Australia when, having been a very long time on a waiting list, a place to exhibit on Merrion Square in Dublin came up and we settled in Ireland properly. Up until then, in an effort to find my feet again as a painter, I had been exploring how shapes and colours affected composition. I was painting for myself, not for any exhibition or gallery. Once I went full time though, the colours became better chosen and more complimentary and I began adding representational images again.

“I take great care in choosing the colours I work with depending on the subject matter. This part of the process is absolutely crucial. The colours I do choose might be heavily contrasted initially but can soften considerably with repeated glazes by using water as a medium. The amount of layers depends on the painting. It also depends on what texture I want to achieve. I would not put too many layers into flesh, because it can easily become lifeless.

“The paints that I use at the moment are acrylic – I love the immediacy of it – and I choose different brands for different pigments. A lot of the work I do is built up in layers and because it’s acrylic and dries very quickly, it allows me to do that … although I would still leave a day between layers. A lot of my figurative paintings are very light in texture and the finish would almost resemble watercolour. When I do use darker colours I avoid black as I find it deadens the painting. I normally sketch in charcoal and then paint over this, usually introducing the darker pigments first.

“I also love painting white on white and really focusing on tones and shades. It reminds me of classical statues. I remember in College, in the corridor, there was a life-size statue of David. Someone knocked it over and it was being thrown out so I grabbed the face. I still have it and have painted it loads of times. It’s travelled with me everywhere I’ve lived. He’s great practice for portraits because I think when people paint portraits they get very bogged down in the flesh tones, whereas with him it is just white.”

“I’m delighted at the moment, as the hard work is paying off. My paintings are now becoming more and more recognized here in Ireland and overseas. I’ve just completed a major commission for The Hermitage Clinic, a private hospital in Dublin, and I’m currently working toward a new exhibition of figurative work.”

You’ll find a good representation of Debbie’s work on her website. Mobile : 087 6973733.