25 Apr Synaesthesia and Painting in Jamaica with TUI

A couple of years ago I was asked what my dream job would be and I said that it would be something which combined painting, photography and maybe a bit of chatting!

Last month, during the coldest late winter the UK had experienced in years, I was flown out to a very hot Jamaica for basically that dream job. 

I had partnered with TUI Sensatori, along with Perfumer Dawn Goldworm and Professor Charles Spence, to be one of their ’Sensatorialists’, staying at one of their five-star luxury resorts in Negril, Jamaica and had been asked to interpret my sensory experience by creating 3 abstract paintings utilising my synaesthesia. I was asked to bring to life on canvas, the sounds, tastes and smells of the most memorable sensory elements I experienced whilst I was there.

Synaesthesia is a merging of the senses and when experiencing sounds, tastes or smells the brain stimulates corresponding abstract visuals. I’ve been using these visuals to create paintings for about 15 years and as I had never been to Jamaica before, let alone painted there, I was incredibly excited.

Making the time to simply connect to my senses can often feel like a luxury. Life can be filled with train journeys, headphones and staring at the computer, but if we regularly connect to our senses and consciously exercise them, it’s obvious that when we relax on holiday we are much more open to their effect and the heightened experience and pleasure they bring.

Scientific research has shown that actually drawing things on holiday, rather than just taking photos or videos, is a massively effective way of reminiscing. Therefore TUI Sensatori are  on a mission to help people capture and prolong their holiday memories by getting in touch with their senses and encouraging people to sketch and make a record of their holiday in a more unique and visual way. 

I personally think everyone has synaesthetic tendencies but it’s whether or not you want to or are even able to find the place in your head where the images are. Babies must gather information in a very abstract way because they can’t read and they don’t have words but as adults it is absolutely a sliding scale; some people suddenly realise that they have always thought of the taste of lemons as spikey, others just don’t connect the taste to anything remotely visual.

So this is a blog post charting my personal experience whilst I was staying at TUI Sensatori in Negril, and showing you the paintings I created for TUI whilst I was over there. And although I obviously did take lots of photos, I also spent hours painting on the beach which I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed… 

Apparently there’s a lot of digitally induced holiday amnesia going on at the moment and as a big Instagram user myself I personally know how full on it can be, but my time with TUI in Jamaica genuinely took me into another, much more relaxed zone.

( I also got some of the press who came out with us, to paint on the beach ) And when I got back home I spent a bit more time getting the paintings finished, which brought the whole experience directly back to Brighton…

‘The Sounds of The Sea’ ‘The Scent in the Spa’ ‘Spicy Jerk Sauce Taste with Barbecue Smoke Aroma’

Whilst I was out there TUI also made a mini film about my experiences which you can watch HERE…and there is also a quiz put together by Professor Charles Spence to see how connected you are to your senses and whether you have synaesthesia or not which you can try HEREWhenever I’ll think back to the resort in Negril, it will be recalling the sound of the gentle waves lapping on the beach at sunset, the barbecue smoke aroma on the beach with the taste of spicy jerk sauce ( something I had never tried before ) and the gentle citrus scent in their Spa…oh yes, and the fact that I walked off the plane in Miami right behind David Beckham!!

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