Were they to produce a movie about Greta Joachim's journey into the arts its title would most likely be The Reluctant Artist.

Joachim had just returned to the Academy of SDA in San Fernando when her prinicipal informed her that she would be teaching Visual Arts.

Joachim didn't have an issue with teaching Spanish but she certainly was a little intimated by the prospect of teaching art, having never done it before.

"I felt that I didn't have enough of a background in art to teach it and I didn't want to cheat the kids. Little did I know God was doing something with me," Joachim said.

Joachim bought a sketch pad and other art supplies and went home to experiment. She took photos of different places and things that inspire her. A calendar with photos of landscapes however, drew her closer to the sketch pad.

"I saw one of the photos in it and said, I could do this. It was a landscape and I would never forget the pinks and the greens featured in the photos," Joachim said.

Joachim took her first painting to a, "real" art teacher at her school for his opinion. His approval of her work, she said, really gave her a much needed confidence boost.

With a grandmother who did basketry a mother who sews, Joachim believes that it was her gene pool that contributed to her newfound skills.

"When I opened the paints there was a certain familiarity to it, even though I never painted beyond ordinary art classes at high school. It was like coming on to a familiar street," Joachim said.

Opening her oil paint for the first time gave her a rush that made her let out a squeal of excitement. Oil paint is said to be the trickiest medium to work with, however Joachim was up to the challenge. As she got less and less intimated by using her paints, Joachim's art evolved, so too her medium from acrylic to oil.

Joachim's work has been exhibited at the Southern Art Gallery, the Voix an Art Gallery and she was among the National Museum's 100 years of Women in Art held earlier this year.

"I felt honoured to have been selected from among those women. Especially since I am still a newcomer compared to some of the other female artists," Joachim said.

The mother of a teenaged girl, Joachim continues to be inspired by the beauty of Trinidad and Tobago.

"We live on such a beautiful island.. I am captivated by the experience of painting outdoors en plein aire. There is a spiritual connection for me between art and God which leads me to want to preserve and take care of this place in which I live,"

Joachim's research into art deepened her appreciation of it.

"When I saw the work of (Claude) Monet I was captivated by the brilliance of colour used. He had a sense of erracticism yet order," Joachim said.

She described her own painting stye as largely impressionistic.

"My work can range from figurative to landscapes but my love is the earth. Because of the power and majesty that is characteristic of water, I am fascinated by the ocean and the beaches and I seek to share what I am privileged to experience daily with the world," Joachim said.

Her fellow artists celebrate her work but Joachim remains her worst critic.

The first painting that she did still hangs on her mother's wall.

"My mother was blown away. She sent her daughter to do history and literature at university and here he daughter was doing art. One day as I passed the framed painting I had this urge to fix something. My mother told me to leave it alone," Joachim said.

Joachim is at present pursuing her Bachelors in Fine Art at the University of the West Indies. She paints mainly on weekends and has seen an improvement in her teaching of art since she herself has embraced it. Now she encourages her students to use art as a way of healing any hurt.

"Art is a great outlet to channel creativity and promote mental wellness and can also be therapeutic," she said.

Joachim has also started dabbling in pottery and often sculpts when she is not painting. Asked about the possibility of hosting her first solo exhibition, Joachim was a bit hesitant. "I am still shy about my work so not yet," she said.

There was a time when Joachim gave away every painting she did. Now she sees the benefits of valuing her work.

"I really believe that God has given me this talent. It is through the study of nature; especially the water, that I am drawn even more into a love relationship with God and my art," the once reluctant artist said.