True Love

Sometimes, it turns out that the great love of your life is the boy (or girl) you grew up with, just as the movies promise. Your childhood best friend turns out to be the one you’ve been longing for all along.

Sometimes, it takes longer. A couple of failed relationships, a marriage that didn’t work out. Perhaps you bring a child or five into a relationship with the person you always knew was out there, but never quite dared to hope for.

Love doesn’t have to look like it does in the movies. It can be calm and effortless, or turbulent and uncertain. Not everyone is ready for love when it comes along. Perhaps the scars of a failed marriage still haunt you, having taken their toll on your self-esteem. Or perhaps you take love for granted, spending all your free time arguing with people who disagree with you on Twitter (X).

But true love is always characterised by two essential things: warmth and goodwill.

I created this work to celebrate what I found when I found my husband. The very thing I had wished for all my life, but wished for too fiercely, too desperately. It wasn’t until I found peace in being on my own that I was able to meet him.

The warmth that has filled my life ever since is represented by the flowers in the painting, which also symbolise growth.