She did not begin painting seriously until well into adulthood, but some might say Gail Foulger has always been an artist. It showed in her years as a buyer, her choices helped shape Bermuda homes and wardrobes for more than two decades before she put her finance skills to work at KPMG.

In 2016, she retired and relocated to Brigantine, New Jersey, where she once again felt the pull of art and began taking classes.

Her commissioned pieces now hang in homes across Europe, Bermuda and the United States.

“I didn't really like working in accounting but I was very good at what I did, because I'm a person that always puts 150 per cent into everything,” she said. “They kept me for 11 years, but to be honest, it really wasn't me. And I didn't really become me until I started painting full-time. Now I'm totally in my element, and it just pleases me to no end.”

As a young child, her interest came naturally; in high school in New Jersey, she was fortunate to have “a fantastic art teacher” who introduced her to techniques most people don’t encounter unless they attend art college.

Although she enjoyed it, she chose to study business in university and, after graduating, took a job as a flight attendant with Eastern Airlines.

Marriage brought her to Bermuda, but it was her work that ultimately guided her back to art. Hired as an assistant buyer in the home furnishings department at HA & E Smith’s Ltd, she quickly climbed the ranks.

“I was very good at buying. I have always been excellent in math, so I was hugely successful. We had great turnover and lots of sales,” Ms Foulger recalled.

Recognising her skills, Sir Henry Vesey, the department store’s head, leased an upstairs storefront and transformed it into an art gallery.

“I started travelling throughout Europe and taking images of Bermuda to Florence, Italy, and having artisans there do paintings,” Ms Foulger said.

On trips to London, England she would pick up marine art she found at Portobello and Bermondsey markets and bring them back to the island to sell.

“I was also very successful buying mahogany barrel telescopes and sextants, things that dated back to [Lord Horatio] Nelson. And the stuff sold really well.”

By then she had her hands full managing that as well as the giftware downstairs.

“I didn’t paint but I did have some unsuccessful pottery that came from Italy one time. It was plain white.

“All the coloured pottery sold immediately, but the white got stuck, and I thought, I’ve got to get rid of this. So I took my paintbrush out and my acrylics, and I went to my desk behind the scenes, and I painted oleanders on the white pots.”

She put her initials on it and wrote “hand-painted in Bermuda”. The pottery sold within days.

“It was the first time I ever painted on anything,” Ms Foulger said. “I just love art, and I love colour and I love painting, but I still didn't have time to paint. And it wasn't supported – I didn't belong to an art group, I didn't have any art friends. My husband wasn't particularly into it, either. So I didn't paint. I raised our son and I worked and I travelled continuously as a buyer.”

Eventually she “got bored”. As her reputation grew she was headhunted several times.

Her first move, to Gibbons Company, introduced her to women’s fashion, a field she continued to explore at The English Sports Shop and later at Trimingham’s.

Within that period Ms Foulger designed and produced private label sweaters and, in her free time, designed and made clothing for clients.

The job allowed her to meet “a bunch of people in the fashion industry” including icons such as Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Dana Buchman.

“I loved it. It was very exciting. Mostly, what attracted me to it was the pace at which fashion moves. It moves so quickly that it kept me mentally stimulated, and I just used my artistic talent to put together clothing. I literally had several thousand square feet of fashion floor mapped out,” she said.

Inspired by Bermuda’s “landscape, tropical flowers and aqua blue water” she started painting again in 2000.

Five years later, when Trimingham’s closed its doors, she finally had the time to focus. For five months she “painted a lot”.

“I gave the Red Cross one of my works for their silent auction. There were actually two ladies fighting over the painting, which was quite flattering to me because I didn't think I was a particularly good painter as I just painted what I liked.

“It was a road in Bermuda with the ocean in the background, and it was very beautiful. It was very impressionist in style, and I put an ornate frame on it,” she said.

Most of her work was sold to friends around the world. Some would send a picture, asking her to replicate the image in it.

However she was eager to try something new and, having majored in business and accounting in university, decided to put that knowledge to work at KPMG. For the 11 years she worked there, she didn’t paint at all.

“To be honest, I didn't really like the job. I worked hard and I worked long hours and my travelling didn't continue, so I missed that. But they just kept paying me more and more money so I stayed.”

As she approached 65 she decided she wanted to be closer to family in the US, so she bought a beach house in New Jersey.

“I had no family in Bermuda. I was divorced for many, many years before I left. And I didn't really have any reason to stay,” she said.

“It's just spectacular here and I can see the sea from my kitchen. It just suits me to the nines. I sold my house in Bermuda, and I moved here in 2016 and I've been here ever since and I paint pretty much every day.”

She is fortunate to still have friends in Bermuda whose pictures give her added inspiration. For several years she has taken painting lessons at the Brigantine Community Education & Recreation Centre.

Last autumn, she exhibited her work for the very first time.

“I don't think it was well attended. It was for one week, and none of the art that was being displayed sold. I think it was also maybe the wrong time of year,” Ms Foulger said.

“This is a seasonal town, Brigantine. We get busy in the summer but it's so funny, because when I bought the place, my brother, who lives here, said to me, ‘You know, Gail, the speed limit here is 25 miles an hour, and it's crazy with people in the summer and it's dead in the winter. I hope you’ll be happy here.’ And I said to him, ‘Do you know you've just described Bermuda? I think I’m gonna fit right in.’ And of course I did.”