A New Life: Tom Morgan has moved from taking the silk to taking the canvas. The barrister-turned-artist has never felt freer, writes Sylvia Thompson.
For some people, there comes a point in their working lives when they have to stop what they are doing and pursue their dreams. This point is often the culmination of years of dissatisfaction with work or life - or both - and the change it prompts is radical. The new work is often a career they would love to have chosen but couldn't and then, for better or worse, they decide there is no longer a choice.
In December 2002, Tom Morgan gave up his working life as a barrister after 30 years of practice. In and around the same time, he separated from his wife, Emer, and became an artist. Tomorrow, his first solo show, "Gold Thread: Joy and Sorrow 2004" opens at Dalkey Castle and Heritage Centre, in Dalkey, Co Dublin for a five-day run.
"It's the first body of work I've thought can go up on the wall. Before this, it's all been for fun. I've been on a big learning curve as a self-taught artist, but I do know that all I ever wanted to do in my life was to paint pictures," says Morgan candidly.
Born in Phibsboro, Dublin, the sixth of nine children, Tom Morgan was educated at Belvedere College, studied law in UCD, was called to the bar in Ireland in 1973 and called to the bar in England in 1986.
"I had wanted to study architecture but missed it by an honour so I got into the queue for law instead. The first in my family to go to college, I had the intelligence for it but I was always a square peg in a round hole," he continues.
Following a year's devilling with Peter Sutherland ( "that was exciting. I was thrown in at the deep end, working on cases in the Children's Court right up to the Supreme Court"), Morgan became a Junior Counsel at the age of 22.
The first five years of practice were traditionally slow and Morgan says he relied on his wife's earning as a secretary until she gave up work to look after their children, Kerry-Jane (now a qualified barrister) and David (now a songwriter). "For years then, it was just work, work, work and more work. I was lucky in that I was in the right place at the right time and I started doing quite well.
"After about 12 years of practice, I started doing more and more licencing cases and became one of the few specialists in licencing law in Ireland. In financial terms, it was a good life.
"Like many guys of my generation, I identified myself with my work and became so immersed in it that it was difficult to define myself outside of it," he continues.
However, the nagging desire to paint wouldn't leave him alone. And, in the midst of all this work, Morgan found artistic expression by devising and carrying out "mad projects" in the garden of his home in Foxrock, Co Dublin.
"I spent about two years building an Italian garden, doing all the stonework myself and even imported a beautiful bronze statue from Italy.
"I spent another two years building a granite fish pond. This is what I did to lessen the pressure and stress in my life but, while working as a barrister, I could never bring myself to the point of doing an original painting that I poured my heart and soul into. I was scared stiff of approaching a white canvas."
After trying to make the break for quite a few years, Morgan finally threw in the towel. "I've come to realise that you can't change tomorrow.
"You can only change the here and now. The separation from my wife helped to focus me and, while it was very sad and very tragic, it helped me to make the jump. I do think that one day you wake up and realise you're going to die. And when I'm lying on my deathbed, the one thing I won't regret is that I didn't stay longer in the law library."
So, once the family home was sold and the finances shared out, Morgan decided he no longer wanted to live in Dublin.
"I realised that - for the same price as a three-bedroomed house in Dublin - I could buy a studio or cottage in Wicklow, Wexford or Kilkenny and a little studio on Gozo Island near Malta or in the South of France."
So, earlier this year, Morgan completed the purchase of an end-of-terrace house in the village of Inistioge, Co Kilkenny and a studio apartment in an old townhouse in Nice, France.
And so, from here on in, he plans to divide his time between both locations. "I'm really only settling into my new life. I'm very lucky that I'm not under any pressure to make an income out of my art. Even if I get 50 per cent sales from this show, I won't have covered all my costs."
But money is not a concern for the ex-barrister.
"I feel I have moved from the feeling of being trapped and having no power over my diary, to a wonderful feeling of gratitude that the best is yet to come.
"I worked for 30 years and now I don't have to take a commission for what someone else wants. I only have to paint what I need to paint."