Koukla mou/water baby is my return to painting as a medium after a year-long hiatus. Stepping back into my practice after such an unexpected break was harder than I could have imagined. Plagued by expectation and frustrations, I knew my way to finally returning to the medium was to tap back into the intrinsically childlike love of painting for painting’s sake, art for art’s sake. I decided a self-portrait of myself based on an image taken on the eve of my 20th birthday was what I wished to explore, combining all my favourite materials of oils, acrylics and Prisma colours to reflect on my current self. Semi-immersed in water, I wished to paint myself in a moment that I felt most beautiful, being in the water. Unguarded, I have always felt the childlike nostalgia and comfort of being held in water. Koukla mou being the greek words of endearment from my mother to me as a child felt fitting within the title, to tie in this reflective moment as I watch myself lose the title of teenager and ascend into a new decade.