When I was a kid I’d love to visit my aunt and uncle’s house. They had a TV room that was filled with travel momentos brought back from all corners of the world. It also had books, atlases and some National Geographic magazines that my sister, my cousin and I would pour through. I loved exploring that room, even when nothing new had been added to it.

As a child, I’d dream of visiting the wonders of the world but they felt very unreachable and somewhat fictional, like Narnia or Oz. So as an adult when I got to travel to one of these places and see it for the first time, I could feel my 10-year-old self standing there, wanting to jump around and scream with excitement “This place REALLY exists and I am HERE!”

Last summer, my inner 10-year-old came out again when I got my first glimpse of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia above the Sagrada park trees. I stopped in my tracks and had that moment of incredulity – “it’s real, it’s truly real.” Thankfully, I had my wits about me enough to capture that exact moment with my camera and as I painted the miniature from that photo, I kept thinking about the marvellous power of imagination and wonder, and how rich our lives are for it.

#159 – Plaça de la Sagrada Familia

2.5″ x 3.5″ ink and watercolour

Original available at my online Etsy shop, ArtWeWonderful, and at local art events