This week is Mental Health Awareness Week (10-16th May, 2021) and the theme is "nature". It's almost impossible to think about good mental health without considering the part that the natural world plays in it for us all.

I remember visiting Knoydart in the Scottish Highlands over 20 years ago.

I got in the car and drove to Mallaig and it was my first visit to Scotland. Driving through Glencoe in the middle of the night I already knew that I was somewhere special. I got out of the car and walked around in the pitch black and saw the most spectacular stars.

The next day, in the morning light, Knoydart was incredible. I was almost emotional. I had never witnessed such a beautiful landscape. From that moment I was hooked.

Painting and observing the natural world is something that not only is good for you but probably a necessity for our minds. Even looking at a cloud for a period of time is soothing or listening to the sea, whatever the weather. Focusing your mind to nature and expressing this in art or a craft is calming and a reset from the bustle of our everyday lives.

No art is bad, it's all creation and deserves celebration.

Here's one of my favourite quotes from naturalist, John Muir:

'In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.'

This really resonates with me as landscapes are always in flux and changing and it's this ‘moment’, that split second, I am trying to capture.

What does nature mean to you, how does it make you feel and what's your favourite place to reset ?