In Dreams

I live in a small city in the North of England. The sky is often the colour of the inside of a Tupperware box and a lot of the architecture matches it. My house is a tiny Victorian terrace with a miniscule yard and a buttercup yellow front door.

In dreams, often literally, I have another life though. Somewhere warm and filled with sunshine I have a beach house or a villa or even a lighthouse. And a garden, oh what a garden! Filled with all my favourite plants and trees, a place to wander and wonder, blessed with light and the scent of roses, and filled with the sound of birdsong.

The house in this painting was one such dream, complete with its checkerboard pattern and topiary garden. I added two of my favourite characters, the hare and bluebird as I thought they would feel at home there, as indeed would I!