In the Summer of 1969 we went on a long camping holiday through Germany, Bavaria, and Italy. Our destination was a small seaside resort on the Adriatic coast, called Porto Recanati.  During the weeks we stayed at the campsite, the children learned to dive under the waves with their Italian friends and bring up starfish which they dried out on the sand, (probably cruel when I think about it now), and empty sea urchin cases.

Along with many other shells and dead crabs, they brought them home to our house in Germany where they were kept in a basket. The seahorse was an addition from a trip to Scheveningen in the Netherlands, which I think was purchased from a souvenir shop. After a while the Starfish began to smell so before we disposed of them I painted a set of studies in watercolour – my own souvenir of the wonderful times we spent on the coast in Italy. My daughter says it’s one of her favourite paintings and has it hanging in her home in Ireland.