For two hours every week, this 40-year-old woman spends her time at Adelaide Women's Prison painting.
The prisoner, who cannot be identified, said it took her to a different place.
"It takes you away from being here and you picture being wherever you're painting," she said.
"I look at the painting and I'll want to go there."
Before landing in prison six months ago on remand for drugs charges, the mother of one had never picked up a paint brush.
Now her work is part of an exhibition at the Adelaide Festival Centre for the South Australian Living Artists Festival (SALA).
"That's one reason I do so many programs offered by the jail, to fill my time with other things, thinking about other things. It's definitely an escape," she said.
"I'm still shocked that I could draw a cup, let alone draw a picture that's in an exhibition.
"It's something that I wouldn't have done otherwise. If I didn't have it offered in jail it's not something that I would have woken up one day and tried my hand at painting."
She said her favourite part was using colours.
"In here we're sort of stuck in our grey outfits all day, every day," the prisoner said.
"Then you get the paints and they're all so bright, the colours, and you see what goes together well."
Building confidence key to returning to society
Record numbers of prisoners from across South Australia have contributed to the exhibition this year, which has run for five years.
Art by Prisoners producer Jeremy Ryder said building confidence was important for prisoners returning to society.
"The key in the desistance process is being able to see yourself as something other than criminal but for other people to see you as something other than criminal as well," he said.
There is a strong body of evidence suggesting engaging prisoners in art could help them cope with life behind bars and potentially reduce reoffending.
But the different works are not only for the public's eyes.
"A lot of the art gets sent out to family and friends because how else are you supposed to maintain a presence in the lives of your friends and your family?" Mr Ryder said.
Female prisoner numbers increasing
After Victoria, SA has the fastest growing prison population in the nation and the number of female inmates in particular is rising.
"It shows we need to do more," SA Minister for Corrections Peter Malinauskas said.
"What we're going to be doing is making sure that we are providing the same amount of attention to our female prisoner cohort as we do to the males.
The state's rate of reoffending prisoners is 46 per cent, but SA Government wants to cut it by 10 per cent by 2020.
The artist inmate at Adelaide Women's Prison said she wanted to make the most of her time in jail through different educational programs and stay positive about her future.
"I don't know whether part of my survival mechanism is partial perhaps denial," she said.
"But I'm just hoping that in the end I'm going to have an outcome that's going to enable me to get on, you know, with my life again and put this all behind me."
