ONCE upon a time there was a little girl who helped on the family farm, worked hard, developed her natural talents and is now a president!
Kay Cullen was born in Kilcoo, Co Down, where her father was a painter and decorator and her mother ran the farm.
"Dad came from Newcastle but mum wouldn't leave the countryside to live in the big town. So they stayed and as well as the animals they developed a market garden. I love making gooseberry jam just as she did."
Kay is a happy lady, full of chat and optimism and never far from her paints and canvasses.
"Dad would bring home wallpaper sample books when he worked in the Ulster Transport Authority hotels all over the north. I remember one sample, pink silk with maroon Fleur-de-Lis. I traced the patters on the underside with blue chalk and wax crayons and my interest in creating shapes and colours began."
The middle child of seven, she suffered from asthma.
"My dad watched me drawing and he'd say 'Don't be hunched over the table, get those shoulders back,' so I could breathe more easily. He must have seen possibilities because when I was seven he allowed me to paint a local man's van with his name, Richard O'Pray, a navy blue van with white Italian lettering along the bottom of the door."
That was 60 years ago, just about the same time as a woman who was to become important in Kay's life established a group of women artists. But that was still in the future.
Kay attended St Louis Grammar School in Kilkeel, where in sixth form her teacher Nancy Fearon encouraged the talent to emerge. She set her pupil the challenge of drawing a potted geranium on the windowsill using charcoal, a medium new to the girl.
"'I'll be back in five minutes to give you a hand,'" she said but when she came back I'd finished the picture and she was impressed."
Kay went on to win the Road Safety Poster Campaign prize for her school and it set a pattern – since then she has won awards with both the Pastel Society of Ireland and Ulster Society of Women Artists (USWA).
Graduating from Queen's University Belfast, she became a primary school teacher but art was always a developing part of her life.
"I saw an ad in the Belfast Telegraph in 1989 publicising a demonstration by Sam McTeer. It introduced me to pastels. I loved them; they set you free, a technique that offers so many possibilities of blending colour." (Pastel crayons consist of pure powdered pigment combined with a binder to hold the powder together.)
She was so successful with this medium that she became chairwoman of the Pastel Society and was then invited to join the USWA, a prestigious group founded by Gladys Maccabe MBE in November 1957 purely because no other art society would accept women members.
The purpose was to promote and encourage a high standard of art in Northern Ireland and to maintain a high standard of exhibitions that reflect upon the membership and to actively seek out and encourage new talent.
Gladys Maccabe also established a fund to help girls who were leaving school to give them the opportunity to learn and develop their artistic skills and when Kay met this remarkable woman she found a mentor and new stimulation.
During the height of the Troubles Gladys painted the scenes she saw around her; in October 1969 four of her paintings – Barricades, Blazing Warehouse, Petrol Bomb Sequel and Funeral of a Victim were selected for the annual exhibition of The Royal Institute of Oil Painters in London.
Her work hangs in the Ulster Museum, the Royal Ulster Academy, the Arts Council of Ireland Collection, the Imperial War Museum and she gathered many awards including the 1984 World Culture Prize.
During the 1960s Gladys was a fashion and arts correspondent and was Northern Ireland Art Critic for The Irish Independent and The Irish News and wrote columns for the Sunday Independent, Leisure Painter and the Ulster Tatler. She was also fashion correspondent for the Belfast News Letter and BBC Northern Ireland.
Like so many others, I remember Gladys McCabe walking around the university area with her hair in an elegant French plait always straight as a ram rod and always colourful – a character. She and her husband Max, also an artist, were artistic royalty – indeed, this was recognised when she was awarded an MBE in 2000.
Now 99 years old and residing in a nursing home, Gladys Maccabe's pictures are in demand to this day and sell for upwards of £10,000. It's into her prestigious shoes that presidents of the USWA have stepped ever since and Kay is proud that she holds the title during this its 60th birthday year.
When her two years in office comes to an end she will be helping and encouraging other artists for a further year.
"It's a sisterhood," Kay explains. "We hold exhibitions and we visit exhibitions all over Ireland and on November 21 we'll celebrate our diamond anniversary during a special event in the Crescent Arts Centre with our patron the Duchess of Abercorn, Gladys Maccabe's son Chris and his family, our members and life members."
Also there will be Kay's daughter, not yet a member but a highly regarded artist in her own right as Gráinne Maher Millinery, and in a place of honour Kay's beautiful pastel portrait of her friend and mentor Gladys Maccabe will be unveiled.
TOMORROW
Two important things about tomorrow. To celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the opening of centre Stage Theatre Company play Martin Luther at the Waterfront, until Saturday. For tickets call Waterfront 028 9033 4455 or Ulster Hall 028 9032 3900.
And tomorrow is the day to Bake Bread for Peace, invite friends and neighbours into your kitchen and fill the world with the aroma of peace.
