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Meet Sally from Sussex
11th September 2026
Rentasenior Blog Contribution: Sally from Oasis Paintings
From Market Stall to Studio: It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again
People often talk about retirement as though it is the final chapter of life. For me, it has become the beginning of an entirely new one. At 56, I genuinely feel my career is only just starting.
When I look back, every stage of my working life has played a part in bringing me to where I am today. None of it was wasted. Every role taught me something about people, business and resilience.
In my twenties, as a young mum, I taught English as a Foreign Language between 1992 and 1997. It was an adventure that gave me confidence, independence and a love of meeting people from different cultures.
Later I ran my own market business before opening two galleries, with backing from The Prince’s Trust, in Surrey. Those years taught me how to build a business from nothing, how important customer relationships are and that there is nothing quite like the satisfaction of working for yourself.
In 2005 I qualified as a primary school teacher, another profession centred around encouraging and inspiring others. Although I enjoyed teaching, my career continued to evolve and in 2006 I joined British Airways as ground staff.
Many years later, in 2020, I fulfilled another ambition by joining British Airways again, this time as cabin crew. Sadly, it was a very short-lived chapter. The Covid pandemic brought the aviation industry to a standstill and like thousands of others I suddenly found myself without the career I had been looking forward to.
It was undoubtedly a difficult time, but sometimes life’s greatest opportunities arrive disguised as setbacks.
Painting had always been my first love. Throughout all my other careers it had remained quietly in the background, waiting for the right moment. Losing my airline career finally gave me the opportunity to ask myself what I truly wanted to do with the next stage of my life.
The answer was simple.
I wanted to become a full-time professional artist.
My husband and I took a considerable financial risk. We invested our own savings to refurbish part of a former farm building into my studio gallery on the historic William Robinson Gravetye Estate in Sussex. We are tenants rather than owners, so it was a leap of faith, but one we believed in wholeheartedly.
Six years later that decision has changed our lives. I now make my living entirely from my paintings. My work is stocked by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Wakehurst Place, I welcome visitors to my own studio gallery and I regularly ship paintings to collectors throughout the UK and internationally.
People sometimes assume that artists naturally move into teaching later in life. Having been a teacher myself, I have enormous respect for those who do, but it isn’t the direction
I want to take. My greatest joy comes from standing in front of a blank canvas and creating new work. I hope to continue painting for as long as I possibly can.
Becoming an artist was only part of the challenge. I quickly realised that creating paintings was one thing; building a successful business around them was quite another.
I had to learn skills I had never imagined needing. From designing and managing my own website to photographing my work, writing product descriptions, optimising pages for search engines and promoting my paintings across social media, there was a steep learning curve. At times it felt like learning an entirely new language. Looking back, I’m glad I persevered. Those digital skills have become just as important to my business as the time I spend at the easel, allowing me to reach collectors throughout the UK and the world.
One of the greatest advantages of getting older is that you begin to realise there is no such thing as a wasted experience. Teaching English abroad, running businesses, qualifying as a teacher, working in aviation, every chapter has equipped me with skills that I now use every day as an artist and business owner.
I think there is a common belief that our biggest opportunities belong to our twenties or thirties. My own experience couldn’t be more different. I didn’t truly find my career until I was fifty. Everything before then was preparation.
If my story proves anything, I hope it is this: it is never too late to change direction, never too late to start a business, and never too late to turn something you have always loved into your livelihood.
The years ahead don’t have to be about winding down. Sometimes they can be the years in which we do our best work. For me, that is exactly what being in my fifties has become: not an ending, but the beginning of the most fulfilling chapter of my working life.
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