This painting is about hope, emotional wellbeing. You can turn everything around with a bit of work and patience. Where you are in this moment, will improve if you walk in the right direction, with the right attitude. There are guides out there, and not being afraid to ask for, or take help is essential. This painting hangs on my lounge wall to remind me of this, I painted it with hope in my heart……to remind me that if things are not right I can change them.

The inspiration came one rainy day.

It rains a lot in Swansea. Seeking out other like minded people, I joined an arts group. We planned to go out landscape painting……it rained……..Refuge, was Plamtasia, a tropical pyraimid glass house built on the old Swansea docks. Wandering through lush tropical plants, I came upon a pool bubbling with large beautiful fish. Mesmorised I sat trying to describe with quick watercolour sketches the wonder of it….I have always loves pools, and fish…….when my dad built a fishpond in our back garden, he would have had no idea how much time I would spend as a child, watching those fish, they always swam away my troubles away.

If fish appear in my dreams……. hey are often rich full emotional dreams, they are always telling me something from deep within. I trust them to guide me to my emotions, so I can understand them, work with them, redirect when needed.

This is one of the largest painting I have done, those of you who have visited my home will have seen in on my walls. I made the decision to begin to share my work looking at this painting…….During this strange covid 19 lockdown, many of us have struggled…….. It has been a surreal dream. there have been times when I relaxed into the blue skies happy…… but the uncertainty, fear lingered…….. bubbled up into aniexty….restlessness. Change is always disconcerting, but we can use it to find a better way forwards. It is knowing how to settle into it, give the emotions time to still and then work it through. we move forwards? A young friend of mine said “It feels like the whole world is falling apart with all that is going on”….

I don’t know yet how to step forwards, but I know that together we can make better days