Gathering inspiration for new paintings

At the beginning of July, I started swimming after a hiatus of many months, partly due to it being winter, and then because there was so much going on with the barn renovation, studio build {more on this soon!}, and life in general.

I had been wanting to swim at Battery Rocks in Penzance for a couple of years , but fear as well as circumstances had got the better of me for a while.

When I finally got in, a whole world opened up, literally beneath my feet. I knew I’d found the inspiration for new work, the evolution of last year’s Mornings at the Pool series.

Sea swimming nourishes me on every possible level.

There’s sense of accomplishment from swimming in the sea, which although so far has been about as warm as it gets for the UK, is still pretty brisk by many people’s standards.

There’s the intense wellbeing generated by the negative ions, and the sheer joy of swimming ‘wild’, outdoors, under the sky.

There’s the camaraderie amongst the small group of people who swim there year round.

And there’s the surprising, mesmerising beauty of what lies beneath the water. I did not expect such an abundant underwater garden!

These photos have been taken with a cheaper version of a Go Pro that I bought last year. {So many people have asked me about it, here’s a link!}

Depending on how choppy the water is, the photos can be pretty clear or very blurry. Sometimes the blur makes for the most unexpected and striking aquatic abstracts.

One of the most exciting parts of swimming days is coming home and uploading the photos - there are always one or two that blow me away.

Some photos are like ready made paintings. And many of them are sparking ideas which I’m filing away until the studio is ready.

In the meantime, I’ll just keep swimming. ;)