IT'S rare to walk down the street during Harbour Nights and have your breath taken away.

You don't even have to be a lover of art for that exact reaction to happen when you walk past one of April Branco's charcoal sketches.

Displayed simply with white matte boards on a large, wooden easel, the images are hard to miss and stand out amongst the panoramas and detailed water colours of our Island.

You'd never guess she is just 21-years-old, the ease of her manner and educated lilt of her conversation belying her young age.

Don't let her youth fool you - the girl knows art. Recently, the Mid- Ocean News' Melissa Fox sat down with this soon-to-be master of her craft to get more insight into her inspiration, her life and her passions.

Q: When did you realise how intense your interest in art was and how did you get your start?

A: It started with colouring books. I had every Disney colouring book, I must have had 22 or so, a big box of crayons and that's how it started. Eventually I began tracing the pictures, and then free drawing them. Then it got better and better.

We left the island, so I did art classes during my correspondence for high school - I did homeschooling.

They gave me different pictures to draw, so I developed a bit. It wasn't an outstanding course but it was something. When I came back in 2003 I continued with my sketches but I was really interested in Chinese painting.

We had talked about Harbour Nights in the States and how I should get into it, but it didn't go over so well - I think the field for it was too small so after awhile I decided it wasn't working and went back to my sketching and doing some African work.

We were walking through town and I kept seeing the Trimingham's art display windows and I kept thinking, "It would be so cool to have my stuff in there!" but then I'd be like, "No, it's not good enough, don't even think about it!"

Everyone kept telling me to put it up, so I said okay! I took a few portrait examples to Saatchi and Saatchi and they gave me a whole window, just me, one big window of my work!

People were asking me why I hadn't gone to college, so I decided why not. I called up one of the teachers and they accepted me.

I started in January and switched to figure drawing because I was more interested in people.

I learned how to use charcoal - which I hated at first because it's so dirty. I had been using graphite pencils and this big, dusty mess; I just didn't know what I was doing! Eventually, Edwin Smith, my teacher, helped me along.

The Masterwork's Competition was going on the same time I was there and he encouraged me to enter. We came up with a theme that worked well, entitled Unity, I entered and won first place for my division - Under 21.

Q: So are you a starving artist?

A: I'm not a starving artist at all (laughing)! It started out that way. Last season I started Harbour Nights and it rained all year!

Even on the radio when they were announcing the weather they're like, "It's the usual Wednesday weather of rain and showers!" It was ridiculous! And I had decided not to do a day job.

So I started working at the Bank of New York and I've been there ever since.

They allow me a day and a half off for my art, so it gives me Wednesday to have my down time, the afternoon off to prepare, and Thursday mornings I have off because I end up getting in really late. And sometimes when I have portrait work to do I need the extra time.

If I wanted to be full-time I could be but this situation was part-time to begin with and it works for me. It's perfect.

Q: Where do you get your inspiration?

A: From human nature. I have two totally different fields of art - one is my children, which you'll see on the website - I have a page devoted to them.

They inspire me, they amuse me, I totally respect kids for their openness. They don't hold anything back. You can see the expressions on their faces and I love to put that in my work.

When someone sees that and smiles or laughs, because that's what you do when you see kids, you feel attached to them.

Sometimes when I'm running happy, I do more children and sometimes when I'm feeling a little darker, it's like my catharsis to sit and do a piece like (her other, somewhat darker and more introspective work).

I get it all on paper and then I feel better. I say all the time to my family how strange that is that it works.

You're feeling all moody and then you do a moody picture, you work on it and it expels the mood.

So it depends on how I'm feeling but sometimes I'll just find a photo and it'll be just the curves or it could be the body part, but in a way that you rarely see it.

Like, sometimes, you'll find an elbow, and I mean an elbow - most people are not impressed with their elbow, they wouldn't think that could be attractive body part but if done in the right way with the right lighting, it becomes attractive.

And I like taking a piece of someone's anatomy that normally wouldn't be inspiring but then putting it in such a way where it looks like a piece of art that someone would want to put on their wall.

I especially like doing pieces where you have to look: you don't see the subject right away - you have to look at it again and then you see the pieces coming together. I like to challenge a person, their mind, when they look at a picture.

At Harbour Nights, of course you want the sale but for me it's isn't always about the sale.

When I see someone come and they stand up to my easel and they're staring, they're looking at each and every one and they call their friend over, they're all huddled around or staring at my work - that to me is more satisfying than making a quick sale.

Q: What's your process?

A: In class we did some photography that was part of the process - photograph then draw.

I'm not one that photographs much; it doesn't really interest me too much, so I find photos everywhere.

It could be an advert for perfume, lotion product, old photograph - any and everywhere. I'll clip them and keep them in a big binder of photos that I've found all over.

Obviously, I have to make them my own because if not, I'm copywriting off someone else's work.

So I have to do some rearranging. At some point I'm hoping I'll be able to do my own photography but I haven't gotten to that point yet.

And then I just sit until it's done. I get addicted - when I'm working on it I don't want to stop because when I stop it's like I run dry. I try to only work on one piece at a time because, like I said, it has to do with mood and if you're moving from two different mental spaces and you're coming back over here, it just doesn't work well. I like to concentrate until it's done.