Anne Kermode is a busy mom-of-three who has conquered the New York Marathon and teaching in a busy primary school classroom.

Now she is preparing for one of her most exciting feats ever — as she hosts her first solo exhibit at Bermuda Society of the Arts, starting next Friday.

“I’m excited and have wanted to have my own show for a very long time,” Mrs Kermode said. “I have had to work full time as a teacher and have three children of my own and run marathons, so finding time for my art work is hard.

“At the same time I’m nervous about how the pieces are going to be received, but hope people like them.”

Mrs Kermode has spent the past nine months working on 12 paintings for her exhibit ‘Down Under’, which focuses on ocean and marine life.

The pieces were inspired by Australian Aboriginal art, which features dots in earth tones to represent the sun, soil, desert sand and clouds. Her fascination with the unique art form began after her father-in-law Nigel Kermode visited the region and brought her back a book on indigenous art.

The artist said: “I have always painted and drawn, but once I had kids that got pushed to the back burner. Then I got to the point where I was thinking of something to do after having my youngest, Max, who is now eight years old.

“I started messing around with the few paints I had and was enjoying the patterns and techniques they used.

“I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I was just using my fingers and trying to make patterns with the circles.”

She enjoyed the process and the fact that indigenous art was very symbolic.

“It’s the texture that I was attracted to. It’s like a mosaic almost and each piece tells a stories as well,” she explained.

“Some of my pieces also have a story behind them. For example with ‘Circle of Friends’ I decided to paint that in honour of a friend who has had a really hard year. She lost her mother and was dealing with that loss, so all I could think about while working on that was her and her struggle.

“My friend represents the central circle in that painting and everyone else are the other circles around it who were touched by that situation. It shows the positive influence she has on the people around her.”

Mrs Kermode decided to focus on local marine life in her paintings, which was natural considering her love for the ocean.

She said: “My husband is big into spear fishing so we are very ocean aware. I have always lived by or near the ocean so I guess that was the inspiration. I also used to work at BIOS for five years in the educational department so the idea behind one of my pieces was to have lots of spirals and creatures from the Sargasso Sea.”

The artist said feedback received from group shows has been extremely positive. In fact she had to stop selling her paintings in a bid to gather enough pieces for the show.

She hopes her pictures will sell well and inspire other artists to create their own work.

‘Down Under’ will be on display in Studio B at BSOA, located in City Hall, from next Friday until January 28.