Welcome back to another installment of Art of the Week. This week's featured art print is one of the most deeply personal piece's I have ever shared with you so far. It is a work poured entirely from my heart, created in loving memory of my childhood best friend, Lynsey, who sadly passed away in 2023.
Growing up, Lynsey and I were completely inseparable — we were as thick as thieves. If you wanted to find Lynsey, you just had to look for me, and vice versa. We grew up on the Barrowshaw estate, a unique, close-knit community where everyone knew everyone, and neighbors felt like an extension of your own family. Even when the estate faced demolition and we were forced to move, luck was on our side: our families were relocated just a single street away from one another. Our bond never broke.
Before the changes came to the estate, childhood in Barrowshaw felt like an absolute dream. It belongs to an era of magic that feels like it is slowly fading out of existence today. We spent endless, carefree days catching butterflies and frogs, going on long bike rides, and picking wild blackberries until our fingers were stained. Lynsey had a profound love for nature and all its tiny wonders. She was always at her absolute happiest sitting in our favorite, secret place: the fairy tree, tucked right next to the spot we always called "the railings."
This new art print serves as a visual sanctuary for that memory. The girl stands surrounded by the quiet forest of our youth, holding a beetle gently in her hands, flanked by butterflies, a ladybird, and a snail. It captures that exact, beautiful essence of a childhood spent in conversation with nature — undisturbed, curious, and perfectly at peace.
Shortly before Lynsey passed away, we had a brief but beautiful conversation that I will cherish for the rest of my days. We talked about what comes next, and we agreed that Heaven would look exactly like Barrowshaw. My beautiful mum had also recently passed away from cancer, and I told Lynsey comfortingly that when she went, my mum would be right there waiting to greet her. I asked her to wait for me there, too, by our tree.
At the end of the film Titanic, when Rose passes away as an old woman, her soul returns to her ultimate happy place — the ship, where Jack is waiting for her. When it is finally my time to go, I know exactly what my happy place will look like. I will look up to see my mum standing beautifully at the top of the lane, and my dearest friend Lynsey, waiting for me right by our favourite fairy tree.
Collect Her
Girl with Butterflies & Beetles is available as an art print, ACEO card, and greeting card — each one a little piece of that quiet, magical forest to take home with you.