Have you ever been lonely? I feel bad even saying this, because I'm a wife and mum.

I was at home in London. The most amazing city in the world. The loneliest city in the world - where it is an affront to say hello to someone on the street. You don't even know your own neighbours!

Maybe you are also not from the cold place you live in? (I'm from South Africa, where the winters and the people are warm and welcoming).

Spring came. As the fragrance of cherry blossoms and daffodils coaxed me into the garden, Bob Marley's voice drifted over my neighbour's fence.

At first I thought the music was from my house, but it wasn't. My neighbour, James, was listening to the same reggae music that instantly transported me home to Africa.

Bob Marley's music had seen me through bereavement, bullying, loneliness and miscarriages - to moments of great joy.

I couldn't believe my ears because James was blasting "Is This Love", the song my husband and I had danced our first dance at our wedding to! Memories flooded back of being back home, celebrating with friends and family.

Even though I didn't know James, I knew he also wasn't from London. Maybe he was also missing his friends and family; wishing he could dance with his loved ones again?

It felt like the reggae music was doing that magic thing that the best art does, reminding us that we are all more connected than we think.

The next time our families were outside our homes, we spoke about reggae music.

As the weather continued to warm, our children began calling to each other over the fence. Within no time they were ace at climbing the fence! connection became a seed for the art you are seeing. I wanted to paint Bob Marley for my neighbours' home, but I visualised this artwork connecting even more ex-strangers like us.

Working in a frenzy of acrylics, textured impasto strokes and abstract shapes, I tried to catch that magic spark of likeness.

Dancing to my husband's Bob Marley playlist while I painted, I tried to visually translate the rhythym, the courage, the soulfulness, the peace into something you can see.

I wanted others to feel what I feel when I hear Bob Marley's music - that sacred space where we are all one, where love is the only thing that matters.

I hope to spark a conversation, like children meeting for the first time. "You like reggae too? Let's be friends".

If you've craved this kind of conversation too, maybe, just maybe, we're already connected.