Solas Nua (New Light)

Oil and Pastel on Canvas
135 x 105cm

This painting is inspired by an Irish-language poem Feabhra where the arrival of Spring is felt as a turning point, not only in the season, but within one’s self – a softening of the world, and a sudden, vivid awareness of being fully alive within it.

Fragments of the poem by Máire Mhac an tSaoi, emerge through the surface – words repeated, obscured, some barely there, others written with passion, urgency and movement.

This shifting rhythm mirrors the energy within the text itself: a balance between softness and intensity, calmness and awakening.

It speaks to that feeling most of us recognise – when something begins to open, almost unexpectedly. A new energy, a sense of possibility, a feeling that life is expanding again after a period of stillness.

Nude and pink tones move between warmth and lightness, holding a sense of renewal – like the first days of a new season, or the beginning of something not yet fully known, but full of promise.