The story behind the artwork - Where the Water Carries Light

The story behind three original paintings

All the Ways Love Flows

Before I started painting, I asked people what waterfalls meant to them. Some said freedom, flow or cleansing. Others spoke about power, fearlessness, possibilities and choosing which path to take. I loved hearing how differently people could feel about the same image.

For me, the water was connected to someone I loved and the hope of reuniting again after a long time apart. In meditation, I saw a waterfall from long ago, that represented the time this soul first came into my life as a magical blessing. The painful years apart felt like a long, slow and winding river that seemed as if it would never end. As I painted, I wondered what it would feel like for that river to become a waterfall again, with all its gusto and full power returning to me.

When I began, I had no idea how the story would unfold. The reconnection was more than I’d hoped for because I was not the only one in my family experiencing a reunion at this time. It seemed to be infectious.

The light in the water

I listened to waterfall meditations as I painted. In one, I imagined an angel pouring healing light into the top of the falls. I could see the light and water mingle until the whole waterfall seemed to glow. That was the feeling I wanted to bring into the paintings.

I visited four waterfalls in one day in my local area. They all had a different energy. I was enamoured by them. I found so many waterfall paintings that I had made over the years that I had forgotten about. I realised there was a symbolic theme that was repeating in my artwork.

I couldn’t always explain the choices I was making with this abstracted waterfall series. I felt the paintings were coming through my heart like a loving force, and I trusted that process of co-creation. I’d put on music or a meditation, pick up my brush, and give the painting time to find its voice. I was locked in to that glorious flow state.

During one of my painting sessions, I played Deva Premal and Miten singing the Gayatri Mantra, and I was in tears. I wanted to understand why it had reached me so deeply at that particular moment.

The mantra begins with Om, the sound of creation, and calls to mind the Earth, the space around us, and the spiritual realm. It’s a meditation on the divine light that gives life, and a prayer for that light to guide our understanding. That image of light stayed with me. I’d been trying to paint the glow where light and water meet, and here was a prayer asking light to help us see more clearly.

Later, I went to see Deva Premal and Miten live at the Enmore Theatre with friends from my Venus Yoga and Women's Circle groups. As I chanted along with them, I cried waterfalls and my heart felt so full knowing that you can't stop the flow of love.

Three paintings, one journey

The First Light of Knowing

Where Love Returns

The First Light of Knowing holds the feeling of a shift. You sense that something might change before you know how it will unfold.

All the Ways Love Flows is the largest painting. It follows the long journey, with water finding its way through different paths and cascades.

Where Love Returns is where the journey comes full circle. When I look at it now, I remember how much hope I carried when I started painting, and how much more life brought me.

What do waterfalls mean to you? I’d love to hear what you see in them.