"I've always loved the human form, it's so interesting. The way people sit in such composed positions without giving it a second thought, the symmetry of the human form, it's just wonderful… and there's something sensual about it too. The move to Dublin came as something of a shock though. I had been warned that the course was incredibly difficult to get into. In fact no one from the school had ever been accepted there. So naturally I was just so excited to be attending there.

"It was a big change for me, moving there when I was 18. I suppose in Cork I was more sheltered then I knew, and then, all of a sudden my safety net was gone. The course itself was incredibly tough. They break you down and build you back up there, but in my four years there they taught me to look and see, which was the greatest lesson of all."

With an arts degree tin her back pocket, Chara, like so many young art graduates looked for the bright lights and action. London beckoned for the 22 year old. She soon found work putting together window display for large stores like Harvey Nichols. "It was similar to sculpturing in that the main goal is to catch peoples attention and draw them in. It was a way of making really colourful and vibrant art, and, in the case of window displays the objective is absolutely clear, which really appealed to me. While in London Chara also found time to expand her CV with work on a number of pop videos for artists such as Dave Stewart, formerly of the Eurythmics, and Pulp. After two hectic years in London Chara decided to move back to Dublin having amassed for herself a substantial portfolio.

She soon picked up in Dublin where she had left off across in London, establishing a design company specialising in window displays, designing and building exhibition stands and product launches, with Diageo, Heineken and Marks and Spencer's all counted among her clients.

But, after 10 hugely successful years in the design business Chara began to feel an increasing urge to return to her first love - painting. "I had big clients and lots of staff with the design company, but after 10 years I felt the time was right to return to painting. I was always taught to write down ideas for my paintings and during those 10 years I had amassed a lot of ideas. What would I have even painted at 22?

Chara still has the business and from time to time she still does some designing, "so as to keep in touch with reality," she says. But as she prepares for her debut Cork exhibition, Moments II, at the Blue Haven on Thursday, May 15 she is in no doubt that she's made the right career move. "I believe I was born to paint. When something comes to you easily you tend to take it for granted, but now that I'm getting my work out there I just want to keep on painting."