Colette Riach is a very busy lady. As a GP, wife, daughter, sister and mother to three teenagers, she has little time to herself. She’s been a great friend and student with us for 10 years now, and although we already know her and love her, we’re very grateful that she’s taken the time to describe exactly what her Little Art School experience has meant to her.
It’s always fascinating to learn what art means to different people. Everyone has a unique story to tell and their routes to creativity and artistic fulfilment are so varied. Colette’s story began in Sligo, in the rural north-west of Ireland, where she was one of eight children in a large, working-class family. She attended a very small village school and then moved on to a local secondary school of around 300 pupils.
Growing up in Ireland, art simply didn’t exist as a ‘job’, and her school was so small that it barely existed even as a subject! Colette explains, “I was a doodler at school, but my parents would never have realised what purpose art had! It’s a different time now and I wonder if I’d have grown up in a less rural background, where art held a different status, if I’d have done more with it. But job security was everything when I was growing up.”
Colette made her parents proud, going on to study medicine in Dublin. When she was an intern, she signed up to an evening class, primarily to relax, but also to learn to draw. Then later, in Edinburgh as a junior doctor, she had an inclining to nurture her creative side further and joined a life-drawing class. She missed lots of classes when she was on call but, “enjoyed it because my head went to another place. I had no thought that I was a wonderful artist, but I loved doing it!”
As it does, life moved on. She became a GP, spent time in Australia, and then came back to Scotland where she married her husband Colin and had three children, Clionna, Blaine and Dillon. During this typically hectic time, she remembers doodling on the corner of pages, but that was all she had time for. She worked three and a half days a week and Friday was her day off…enter the Little Art School!
Colette’s daughter Clionna began studio classes with the Little Art School when she was around 8, and with a very artistic child, Colette signed up for our in-person adult class so they could share a common interest. It’s no understatement to say that decision has changed her life, and we’ve felt privileged to have her as part of our Little Art School family ever since.
“There was SUCH a fantastic teacher at the school – Carol – and it really inspired me! We were a ‘motley crue’, elderly, young, male, female…but everyone just really got on. I learned how to paint, and I had never painted in my life. That hour on a Friday morning was just for me – it was my hour of prescribed relaxation. I could switch off and think of colour and light…but the great thing about it was that I learnt too. I went from someone who could only draw a little, to being able to do quite complex paintings!”
Colette goes on to say, “I look at art the way I look at music – no one is an expert to start with. No matter your gift you must practice! And if lack of confidence is an issue, at the Little Art School there really is no judgement. Not everyone is a virtuoso violinist – there are lots of other wonderful musicians out there, and I think it’s the same with art.”
Colette completed the course, graduating during the pandemic. She was delighted when the online adult class became available too, with the added advantage that she can pick it up whenever she wants to. Art is still her refuge, her escape and her therapy from an otherwise hectic life, with lists a mile long to keep up with work and family commitments.
So, what’s her favourite thing to paint? She’s painted portraits for nieces and nephews – which her family are delighted with! If she sees a picture or photograph that she likes, she’ll have a go at that too. She completed a beautiful drawing for her friend’s 50th birthday, and another painting that she’s particularly proud of features a coastal path in St. Monan’s, Fife, snapped during a family holiday.
She loves every medium, and as she jokingly puts it, “I’m a jack of all trades and master of none!” But the single most important thing about her art is still that it always relaxes her. She says, “it’s more than a pastime, it’s my lifeline, my mindfulness and my escape. I can just completely empty my mind and put colours on a page, in any way that I want.”
She loves every medium, and as she jokingly puts it, “I’m a jack of all trades and master of none!” But the single most important thing about her art is still that it always relaxes her. She says, “it’s more than a pastime, it’s my lifeline, my mindfulness and my escape. I can just completely empty my mind and put colours on a page, in any way that I want.”
And what of Colette’s daughter Clionna? Well, she’s also a graduate of the Little Art School course and the journey that mother and daughter started on has certainly brought them closer and has begun another journey for Clionna, as she’s now a first-year student of the acclaimed Duncan & Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee!
Colette is very proud of her and feels passionately that the course has been extremely beneficial to them both. She feels, as we do, “if it can do that for us, what an amazing thing it is for all children, especially those with learning difficulties, or from challenging backgrounds – it will give them so much confidence and support.”
What does the future hold for Colette? She may even show her paintings at an exhibition! It’s something that she would never have thought of doing, but Joanne has been so encouraging and insightful that she feels she just might consider it! She has truly discovered the artist inside of her and it has given her so much relaxation, friendship and joy along the way.
If your inspired by Colette’s story – have a look at what our Online Course is all about