After a lot of final touches to my triptych, measuring, labelling and painting my exhibition walls my works were finally hung! The opening of the degree show on Saturday went very well, there was a good turn out of visitors making a lively atmosphere. I felt my paintings were exhibited in an excellent spot, there was a nice, even, bright light which made my works really stand out. They were also at the end of the room where there was space for visitors to stand back and have time to take in my work.

Given we had three days to paint our exhibitions walls, and three days the next week to label and hang our work I left plenty of time to get all the hanging done. This meant I had time to touch up my paintings in their space, which I felt was very important as the light was considerably brighter in the exhibition rooms. I added some vibrant notes of colour to the areas of detail and shimmer from the light on the wet rocks (particularly in the third panel).

This is me next to my paintings to give you a sense of scale! (I am 5ft 11, and I seem to have hung my paintings at the right height after lots of consideration and time spent with a tape measure).

I decided before hanging that my two other rock pool studies accompanied the triptych better than my fragment paintings. So here they are! They are a nice contrast, since the sand brushed over the rocks and between the cracks revealed warmer colours adjacent to the cool rocks and transparent water. The titles of the works are also important to my vision with the rock pools – the triptych was entitled ‘The Trail of the Hermit Crab’ and either side ‘The Shrimp Pool’ and ‘Amroth Stones.’ The rock pools I encountered for all these works have geographical locations, but I see the creatures, rocks, life and particularity within each pool as their own thriving environment.