Title

Where Hope Pushes Through Cracked Earth

Oil and Pencil on Paper 2025.

297 × 420 mm

This painting is part of a series I made back on the Isle of Man, returning to drawing and painting after a long period of illness. The landscapes are the ones I grew up in: wild, wind-shaped trees, open highlands, Celtic stones, and the colours of the island that stay with me no matter where I go.

Where the first piece showed a figure collapsed in pain, this one stands a little taller, supported by the landscape around it. The setting sun marks a quiet shift towards return. A moment of change that is gentle rather than sudden.

This piece is about the moment you begin to feel yourself coming back. Not fully, and not all at once, but enough to notice the land beneath you holding some of the weight. It is also about the connection between mind and body, and the way recovery can happen in the smallest increments: standing a little taller, breathing a little deeper, recognising yourself again.

The painting was made on the Isle of Man, inspired by the Plains of Heaven at the Braaid, overlooking Greeba Mountain. I drew there, working outdoors before returning indoors to finish the painting.

This is a place that has held stories for much longer than mine. Among these ancient stones, I felt my drawing style returning to me. Something settled, and for the first time in a long while, I felt that I had found a part of myself again.

20% of the proceeds will be donated to Bethlem Gallery. These artworks were developed in collaboration with the gallery for the Exhibition, This Wild Achingly Beautiful Place.