Marion Clarke is from County Down,

Northern Ireland. She has been using

oil paints since childhood, when her

grandmother let her experiment with

her art equipment. Marion studied art

to advanced level and in the 1980s

was accepted onto a foundation course

for a degree in art, but changed her

mind and studied French and business.

Over the next 18 years she studied and

worked in Belfast, Bristol, Lille and

Surrey and, in the year 2000, Marion

returned with her family to her native

Warrenpoint, where she now paints and

writes poetry and fiction.