Acrylic on canvas, 36x36in. Not for sale. Prints and other products of the earlier version (below) available on Redbubble.

This painting was inspired by a beautiful aerial photo of a swimming hole in Tasmania, Australia, that I found on Pinterest. The colours really grabbed me, and I liked the idea of using painter’s tape to create straight lines as an interpretation of the cracks in the rocks.

I started with painting water and sand with a bit of black aerosol and black salt for texture. Black salt sounds like some really fancy artist ingredient, but to be honest it was just something I had in my cupboard from a recipe I made a year ago and I never use it in my cooking because it looks like pepper and I find that really confusing. Salt is something artists often use to draw moisture in wet paint which creates an interesting effect. I’d recommend not using black salt unless you also like these areas to look, well, black. Luckily I’m cool with that.

I let this dry, then added some gold aerosol to shine through in the lines from underneath the final pattern.

I got such a great response to this work in progress on Instagram, that I almost felt bad about covering it with more paint. I find that sometimes when I get a positive response to something I create, it just makes me feel more pressured to consistently do stuff that other people like. So I’m glad I can put that fear aside and just keep on listening to my inner voice that says “this isn’t finished yet, keep going!”

I added pink and orange, with liberal sprinklings of gold and white aerosol and waited for the layer to almost completely dry before taking off the tape.

This was the first time I’d used painter’s tape this way, so I was surprised to find that when I peeled it off, the paint had bled through the tape. So much for the nice clean lines I’d had in mind! But I actually liked this result anyway – it created a more complex, gritty effect which I’m really drawn to.

I’m so, so happy with this one. There’s so much going on but it still has a broad beautiful shape. To me, the painting puts me in mind of how the ocean meets modern civilization. This painting has pride of place in my living room now.