Art’s in the blood for Thelma

Date Published: 06-Jun-2007

If Thelma Mansfield had not been plucked from school at the age of 16 years to become the new face of RTÉ, it is highly likely that she would have become an artist at a much earlier age. Since she left
broadcasting behind her and started painting full-time about seven years ago, her life has been transformed and her only regret is that she didn’t do it years earlier.

While she thoroughly enjoyed her years with RTÉ, Thelma becomes so completely absorbed in herwork in the peaceful, sunny studio
at the back of her Dun Laoghaire home these days that she sometimes has trouble remembering what her days in RTÉ were like.

“When I’m painting, I focus so hard on what I am doing for hours that I become almost brain dead. It’s such a solitary activity. I can’t have
the same personality that I used to have as a TV presenter,
I almost have to learn how to talk to people again,” she remarks.