Her impressionable first years were spent close to nature on the banks of the river Shannon in a place called Plassey and in the neighbouring Saint Patricks national school. Being an only child and often a lonely one, her inner world of the imagination became a rich place of escape, fantasy and daydreaming, setting the scene for an evolving life as an artist.

Life as an artist however, was pushed aside as a priority and after six years in Laurel Hill secondary school, Noreen followed the more "respectable" career as a teacher , spending four years studying Irish and French at University College Galway.

What began as a two year experiment in teaching French, Irish and Music in Saint Patrick's Classical School in Navan in 1975 ended as a 14 year committment. Christmas was always the special time of the year with the students. Her creative side could be indulged in the end-of-year musical concerts.

However, what she sees as the "call of the soul "towards expression and fulfillment could not be denied forever and in 1989 she finally fulfilled her dream to study Art full-time in the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. This was a time of finding herself and the other possibilities of being. Not to be underestimated as a major turning point in her career, was a four month exchange trip to Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Canada in 1991.

This she sees as a time of growing awareness and self realisation, a time of vision and a time of knowing what really matters as an artist. She discovers artists Klimt, Schiele, the Group of Seven Canadian Impressionists and contemporary Irish artists, LeBrocqy and Tony O'Malley among many others who have all had an infuence on her emerging work style and technique.

Since graduating in 1992, Noreen has lived her dream: painting, exhibiting, travelling and teaching. Her work has taken her to many places, at home and abroad as a working artist and as an exhibitor.She published "Moving Carpet" a documentation of nine years of work in 2001 coinciding with her first show in New York.

Recent exhibitions have included "The Cat's Pyjamas" (Christmas 2006) and "Sous Le Ciel De Renoir" (June 2007). Noreen spent two years exploring and painting on the Cote d'Azur, and some of this work made up her exhibition, "Saisons Et Humeurs" in La Turbie. She spent Winter 2007 in the tundra region of Manitoba, Canada, photographing and painting polar bears in the fast-degenerating climate of the Arctic.

Her work, if simply analysed can be seen as strong from the perspectives of colour, line, shape, form and narrative. She works equally well in oils, acrylics and watercolour.