Kathleen Mackie was a glider pilot as well as a talented artist

The barn loft had been locked for years. Paddy Mackie found himself knee-deep in clutter. His mother had asked him to find some old furniture. But something else caught his eye.


Stacked against the back wall, he saw them. Painting after painting. He brushed off the dust and uncovered the secret world of the artist Kathleen Isabella Metcalfe Mackie – his mother.


Never once had he seen her painting yet here was a massive collection of work. Most were from the 1920s when she was a free-spirited young woman. But after Kathleen married one of the North's leading industrialists, James Mackie, her passion for her art was set aside. She became a dutiful wife and mother. The wealthy, Presbyterian-type environment in which she lived didn't embrace the female artist, let alone one painting nudes. The paintings were locked in the loft and Kathleen upheld the conventions of the day.


She was 84 years old when the paintings were found. They are lovingly reproduced in this book, by her son Paddy and the journalist Eamonn Mallie, which also tells her life story.


Born in Belfast in 1899, Kathleen studied at Alexandra College in Dublin. She won a scholarship to London's Royal Academy. One of her paintings was exhibited in the Paris Salon in 1925, a huge achievement for a student.


In a letter to her mother, Kathleen confessed her all-consuming love of art and feared she was "a very undutiful daughter – I suppose I have a kink somewhere in my reasoning". She didn't miss attending parties "which shows I cannot be normal".


Normality awaited. The following year she married James. They had three sons. Unknown to her boys, Kathleen continued to paint in the 1930s, '40s and '50s, when the family were holidaying in Donegal.


There were other releases too. She became a glider pilot and was a close friend of Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly alone from Britain to Australia.


After he found the paintings, Paddy arranged exhibitions of his mother's work. She said she didn't know what the fuss was about but he reckoned she was "quietly pleased". She died weeks after the Ulster Museum exhibition, finally receiving artistic acclaim.


Kathleen Isabella Metcalfe Mackie by Eamonn Mallie and Paddy Mackie, Nicholson and Bass, £50