The road to true love never runs smoothly, and it has been no different for Ann Murray in her affair with the brush and palette. Recently chosen to participate in one of the world's most prestigious art exhibitions in Florence next year, she says the great romance started as soon as she was able to hold a brush.

Murray enjoyed limited success early on, selling her first painting at the tender age of 13. However, art isn't a dependable breadwinner and Murray was forced to turn to other, more financially secure alternatives. In the end, though, love conquered all, and she is about to enter the international art scene at next year's Florence Biennale thanks to her self-belief, a little luck, and a great website.

"It's been a long route. Before deciding to paint full-time, I did desktop publishing, office work, I was a tour guide, an education and training advisor, and I even had a paper round for a bit. In the end, I knew where my heart was and I went to Art School. I'm still not really making a living out of it, but at least there is some success, so it is worth it. You keep going because you love it and you have an innate need to do it."

The event in Florence is financed by the artists themselves, which puts Murray in a catch-22 situation. Although she spends all her time painting, she can't sell anything until after the show next year. To compound the conundrum, the Arts Council isn't funding artists until some time next year, while the Cultural Relations Committee, which funds Irish art abroad, only pays up after you return from exhibiting abroad. That leaves this "starving artist" having to cope with trying to find sponsorship, while also putting together a collection of work.

"Trying to be commercially viable and concentrate on painting is horrible because if you work, you're so drained when you come home, you can't paint. Art is demanding in itself. You're between a rock and a hard place." Murray caused quite a stir with her degree show two years ago, which featured not a single portrait or landscape, but lingerie, and she aims to continue breaking with traditon for Florence. "I will base the work on the male figure, and I will try to show it in a new way with very serene, contrasty paintings. People are scaredo of the male form and I don't know why. I know I have chosen the more difficult, less traditional route. But I think, in the end, it will be worth it."