Acrylic and mixed media on cradled deep edge board

There’s a quiet kind of magic that settles over the Irish landscape on summer evenings. The hills, still warm from the day, seem to cradle the light, holding it just a little longer. Fields shimmer in soft golds and ochres, while the sky melts into lilac, rose, and deepening blue. In the distance, the mountains blur into a gentle haze—as if the land itself is letting out a long, contented sigh.

This time of day feels like a deep breath. The noise of the world fades, and in its place is a sense of stillness and connection to the land, to memory, to something honest and enduring. It’s in these quiet moments that I find what I’m looking for. Back in the studio, I don’t try to recreate what I’ve seen, but rather the feeling of it, the warmth, the hush, the colour of calm.

This painting is called The Simple Truth, because that’s what it feels like: a fleeting moment of clarity, where everything falls away but the light, the land, and the sense of being utterly present.