04/05/2026
In early January 2025, on an unusually beautiful winter morning in London, I felt an instinct telling me to go for a walk on Hampstead Heath, not with my iPhone, but with my digital camera.
What happened next still feels difficult to fully explain.
The beauty of the day, and the way the light moved across the Heath, was astounding. I felt that very strongly, and I began trying different things with the camera, things I can’t even recall now. It was as if I became a channel, allowing an unexplained ability to flow through me and capture what was in front of me.
When I uploaded the photos, I was truly blown away by what I had captured.
I didn’t know it then, but these images marked the beginning of a shift in me and in my work, a growing recognition of the importance of light in my paintings, and a deeper calling to embrace spirituality in my life.
The question is: how was I able to do something beyond my capability on that day?
I now understand the spiritual answer.
At the time, I was at a low point in my life. And it is precisely in that state that allowed something to open, to try new things, to do things differently, to become more real, more raw, more honest. It explains why I followed that instinct, and why I was open enough to become a channel.
When things are going well, there is a natural tendency to stay within what is known. There is comfort in familiarity, in repeating what already works.
But difficulty disrupts that.
Staying the same no longer feels viable.
Today, these images have become a source for my current light activation work. As I think more deeply about painting in relation to light, I can trace something essential back to that moment.
That day marked a shift.
It was the beginning of understanding that my work is not only about colour, but about light itself. How it appears, how it transforms, how it can be held within a surface.
And also, a recognition of my own responsibility:
not just to paint the light,
but to become more like it.
