104.4 x 74.8 x 5.1cm, oil on canvas, framed, 2025. 

There’s a huge sense of space in Returning Sky -  that big, endless-sky feeling you get standing at the edge of Lough Neagh on a clear day, when the horizon seems to stretch further than you remembered. I wanted the surface of the painting to carry some of that rawness too: the spatters hint at the rough, stony shoreline, while the scraped-back areas pull through glimpses of trees and distant land, like shapes you notice only after your eyes adjust to the light.

This piece grew from the feeling of slowly finding my way back to myself after a difficult stretch - the way the horizon can feel impossibly small for a while, then gradually widen again as you start to breathe a bit more deeply. The shifting colours, the expanding light, the quiet sense of possibility - they all found their way into the layers.

Returning Sky is a painting about renewal, patience, and letting yourself step back into something hopeful, even if only one brushstroke at a time.

Where it fits at home:
A true statement piece - beautiful above a sofa, anchoring a dining space, centred over a mantle, or in an entrance hall where it can set the tone with openness and quiet optimism.