Art - Art Room Xmas Show

Irene Marot recently submitted three large paintings to the Royal Charity Auction, and was pleased to sell one. “I was rung the next day by my publicist,” she recalls, laughing, “who said: ‘guess who bought it?’ And you know who it was? It was only the patron of the charity, the Countess of Wessex.” She laughs again, at the wonder of it all. Her accent is unmistakeably Liverpudlian. “Royalty, darling.”

Irene has reason to be delighted: she’s currently half-way through her MA in art at the University of Brighton, having started studying art thirteen years ago, when she was 42, after having a baby boy. You may remember Irene in her previous incarnation as an actress: she was DeeDee Dixon on Brookside. “I was offered more work on Brookside, but I turned it down because of my child,” she said. She moved to London, and then to Iford, near Lewes. She still acts, but only occasionally. She is dedicated to her new career, though.

Irene is making a name for painting dogs in landscapes, but she also paints other animals ‘like ducks and cockerels’. “This might sound a little masturbatory, but I see the animals as metaphors,” she says. You can tell from the tone of her voice that she means it passionately, that there is no pretension to her words. “The Indians consider the domestic dog to be a reminder of the extraordinary in our everyday lives,” she continues. “I’ve been an actress, so I’m used to travelling, and now I’m on a quest for the meaning of life. How extraordinary seemingly ordinary things are, like holding a relationship, or having a child. These are the things that hold the key to our existence.”