The Water and the Wild

Mermaid street art in Forest Hill, South East London. A long way from the sea but just down the road from the swimming pool. This was apparently painted by Brazilian street artist Derlon Almeida (the scrawl on her belly obviously a later addition), linked to a Brazilian culture exhibition in 2016 at the nearby Horniman Museum. Derlon's mermaid has appeared elsewhere - this one is from an exhibition at Villa Zapakara in Surinam: Photo from Gypsy Soul Diaries Mural in Recife, Brazil Mural in Newcastle, England

Some great images in Nancy Farmer's swimming-themed 'Facing the Storm' 2021 calendar ( available here ) Ours came with some fabulous synchronised swimming snowflakes wrapping paper too!  

Anita Klein, Swimming in the Rain (2020) The artist and printmaker Anita Klein has been painting swimmers for a while, but Covid lockdown has prompted her to create and bring together a whole body of swim-themed work - the subject of her exhibition 'Water' at Eames Fine Art Gallery (Bermondsey Street, London SE1) which we visited last week. There are swims in pools, in lakes, in the rain, in Italy, in Lake Windermere, and in London's Royal Docks which like many other swimmers this year Anita took to for the first time when so many other swimming spaces in London were closed. As Anita told 'Outdoor Swimmer' magazine (October 2020):  'Before lockdown I was definitely more of a pool swimmer, but I missed swimming so much, then I discovered the London Royal Docks and I realised it was possible to swim again.…Swimming at the Dock has been really beautiful. Have you ever noticed the reflections of the buildings? There are these buildings that are vertically straight i...