"Where Light Is Held" at Ffin Y Parc Gallery 2026

Within my garden at a moment when light moves fully through it, illuminating petals, stems and seed heads alike, so that structure and softness are equally revealed. The light seems to open the space outward, creating a feeling of continuity — as if the garden extends beyond itself, unfolding endlessly. What emerges is a sense of ultimate joy: not fleeting or ecstatic, but vast and sustaining, where growth, light and presence align and feel boundless.

Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in antique frame 143 w x 94 h cm Unframed 185 w x 137 h cm Framed

A quince held between states — fruit, object, almost mineral. The painting explores ambiguity of matter, where surface, weight and light blur distinctions between the organic and the elemental.

Oil, walnut ink and mixed media with gesso in antique frame 69 w x 58.5 h cm Framed 51 w x 41 h cm Unframed

Foxgloves and lilies gathered into a shared field of light, their forms hovering between emergence and retreat. The painting holds a quiet tension between fragility and strength, where vertical stems and open blooms seem briefly sustained before they pass.

Oil, walnut ink, metallic gold and mixed media with gesso on board in Antique darkened gilded frame 107 w x 94.5 h cm Framed 84 w x 72 h cm Unframed

Foxglove forms open and unfold across the surface, their structure loosened as light moves through leaves and petals. Ruptura speaks of parting rather than breaking — an opening that allows warmth and gold to surface, holding growth in motion like a woven field of light, foliage illuminated with gold.

Oil, walnut ink, metallic gold and mixed media with gesso on board in Antique darkened gilded frame 107 w x 94.5 h cm Framed 84 w x 72 h cm Unframed

Stillness as a form of devotion. Splendor Solis centres on a sudden burst of light and energy, where a quince, crossed vine branches and a sunburst crucifix are drawn into alignment. Autumn light enters and radiates outward, activating the surface rather than resting upon it, so that fruit and branch seem charged with presence. The moment is brief but intense — abundance, growth and symbol brought together in a flare of illumination.

Oil, mixed media and gesso on board in antique frame 46 w x 61 h cm Unframed 70 w x 85 h cm Framed

Still-life depicting late-summer dahlia, echinacea and flowers from my garden gathered at the height of abundance, where colour, weight and structure are allowed to exist without interruption. Light settles across the petals as presence rather than drama, concentrating attention on the intensity of bloom at its fullest celebratory moment.

Oil, walnut ink and mixed media with gesso on board in Antique gilded frame with satyrs masks 140 w x 117 h cm Framed 113 w x 90 h cm Unframed

I am thinking about the moment of suspension — not just physical, but spiritual and temporal. The apple hangs between growth and fall, held in a quiet pause that feels both intimate and charged. This work reflects my ongoing fascination with stillness as a form of contemplation: the way a single fruit, briefly arrested in time, can become an offering.

Oil and gesso on canvas in antique frame 26 w x 36 h cm Unframed 32.5 w x 43.5 h cm Framed

The dahlia no longer gathers or lifts, but breaks free entirely, dissolving into a surge of colour, gesture, and force. Form is abandoned in favour of sensation: petals smear, collide, and disappear into the act of painting itself. What remains is not a still life but an experience — a moment of rapture where abundance overwhelms structure, and joy asserts itself without restraint.

Oil, walnut ink and metallic acrylic with gesso on canvas in blackened antique frame 76.5 w x 61 h cm Unframed 94 w x 82 h cm Framed

Foxgloves appear briefly as apparitions, catching light before dissolving back into space. The work reflects my fascination with how luminosity is carried through living things, how colour can create emotion without being illustrative: a moment where growth, fragility and illumination coincide.

Pastel and acrylic on paper 43 w x 57.5 h cm Unframed 52 w x 72 h cm Framed

Apples gathered together, their forms overlapping and merging. Stillness as a form of devotion. The apples are brought together not for abundance or display, but to be held in a single moment of attention. The drawing holds collective presence — not individual objects, but a shared weight shaped by closeness and restraint.

Art Graf water-soluble pastel, walnut ink and graphite on paper 43 w x 30 h cm Unframed 52 w x 42 h cm Framed

Pomegranates gathered on a table as vessels of memory and continuity. The fruits are held in balance between surface and depth, grounded yet resonant, carrying the quiet weight of time, ritual and persistence.

Oil, mixed media with gesso on board in antique frame 57 w x 62.5 h cm Framed 47 w x 42.5 h cm Unframed

Cydonia oblonga — rendered as a quiet unfolding of form, weight, and light. The fruit sit low and grounded, their yellow warmth emerging through veils of white, umber, and grey, as if slowly revealed rather than placed. Gesture moves laterally across the surface, echoing the line of the table. The work speaks to containment and restraint — fruit gathered, held, and observed — where light is not dramatic but earned, settling gently into the surface and allowing the ordinary to carry a quiet gravity.

Pastel and acrylic on paper 50 h x 70 w cm Unframed 63 h x 93.5 w cm Framed

Not an ending, but a gathering of what lingers. This work attends to the residue of warmth, colour, and light after the flowers peak has passed, holding them with care rather than nostalgia. It is a painting about continuity — how abundance leaves traces that still sustain. A single quince anchors the composition.

Oil, mixed media and gesso on paper 50 h x 70 w cm Unframed 63 h x 93.5 w cm Framed

An exploration of floral abundance, shifting from the dense ecstasy of bloom toward elevation and illumination. A tangle of late-summer flowers rises across the surface, their forms loosening and lifting as colour moves from shadow into radiance. Gesture replaces outline, and the flowers seem suspended in a moment of ascent — not arranged, but carried — recalling the gilded logic of devotional painting, where light signals transformation.

Oil, walnut ink and metallic acrylic with gesso on canvas in antique frame 76.5 w x 61 h cm Unframed 98 w x 80 h cm Framed

Vines and dark grapes rest in shadow as light slips across their surfaces. Gold emerges softly, not to dominate but to reveal, allowing the abundance of the vine to surface slowly, with reverence and restraint.

Oil, walnut ink and metallic paint with gesso on board in antique frame 69 w x 59 h cm Framed 50.5 w x 40 h cm Unframed

The remaining forms of summer thin into memory. Petals loosen, colour fades, and what remains is held gently — a record of passing rather than loss. A point where abundance begins to ebb and attention sharpens. It is a painting of transition and endurance, holding the flower not at its height nor its conclusion, but in the subtle interval where vitality lingers and the season turns inward.

Pastel and acrylic on paper 50 h x 70 w cm Unframed 63 h x 93.5 w cm Framed

Autumn fruits ripeness - weight, density, and memory. Almost pressed into the ground of the painting, as if time itself has gently compacted the fruits, darkening their colour and deepening their presence. I am interested here in abundance not as display, but as gravity: the quiet richness that comes with maturity, shadow, and depth. It speaks to autumn as a season of gathering and inwardness

Oil and gesso on canvas in antique frame 56 w x 40 h cm Unframed 69 w x 56 h cm Framed

The pomegranate becomes a bearer of memory — marked by time, touch, and the quiet accumulation of looking. This work sits within my ongoing interest in how objects absorb meaning through proximity, repetition and contemplation. Testimonium speaks to evidence rather than declaration — a still life not offered for consumption, but held as proof of presence, of having been seen. A silent witness to what has passed and what endures.

Oil and gesso on canvas in antique frame 61 w x 46 h cm Unframed 67.5 w x 52.5 h cm Framed

Apples and leaves scattered as if newly gathered, caught by autumn light that settles and lingers. Light is held as something remembered rather than observed, quietly transforming fruit and leaf into icons of presence.

Oil and metallic paint with gesso on board in antique frame 66 w x 55.5 h cm Framed 51 w x 40.5 h cm Unframed

Golden seeps into the painting gradually, catching and resting on the fruit as if arriving rather than being applied. Apples are held aloft, suspended at the moment of arrival. Light enters the space and settles across their skins, marking a pause where fruit is neither fallen nor taken — abundance recognised and briefly held.

Oil, walnut ink, metallic gold with gesso on board in antique gilded frame 91 w x 75 h cm Framed 68.5 w x 52.5 h cm Unframed

An unexpected moment in the garden — different poppy varieties rising together. The weather has tangled them, bending and interlacing stems, yet their arrival feels urgent and celebratory, a signal that summer has begun to assert itself. There is a sense of surprise, of growth arriving unannounced, carrying both fragility and momentum. The shifting of seasons.

Pastel and acrylic on paper 50 w x 70 h cm Unframed 63 w x 93.5 h cm Framed

The rain has passed and the garden begins to right itself. The blooms are no longer weighed down but not yet still, caught in a quiet re-ordering as petals lift, settle and re-find their place. What matters here is balance regained rather than perfection — a sense of lightness returning, of forms breathing again after pressure.

Pastel and acrylic on paper 50 w x 70 h cm Unframed 63 w x 93.5 h cm Framed

Freshly opened poppies are unsettled by a sudden change in weather. Movement fractures the blooms, leaving vulnerability exposed and energy alive to the elements.

Pastel and acrylic on paper 50 w x 70 h cm Unframed 63 w x 93.5 h cm Framed