SEASONS OF LIGHT

On a cold January morning in 2025, I stood at the waterfront in Rostrevor with my easel, painting Carlingford Lough. It’s a view I have painted many times before, but this time I set myself a challenge: to paint the same scene en plein air throughout the day, every month, for an entire year. My goal was to capture the changes through all the seasons of a day, a month and a year. 

This view is one I pass nearly every day, and like so many familiar landscapes, it is easy to take for granted. Through this project, I wanted not only to document its beauty but also to truly see it. Painting it repeatedly has made me more present, more attentive to the subtle changes that otherwise slip by unnoticed. The experience has become both a creative discipline and a way of life.

Each work is distinct—shaped by the hour, the weather, the shifting light, or the movement of the tide. This challenge has deepened my relationship with the landscape, reminding me that even the most familiar views are never the same twice. I could return to this place every day for the rest of my life, and each painting would be different. That realization is at the heart of Seasons of Light: an invitation to slow down, to look closely, and to notice.

As a collection, these works form something like a visual book of the seasons. Each painting holds the story of its moment—the atmosphere of the day and the particular light of that hour. When displayed together, the series highlights the constancy of the scene alongside its transformations. The familiar silhouette of Carlingford Lough remains, but the colors, tides, skies, and moods shift from canvas to canvas.

Seasons of Light represents both a personal journey and an offering to viewers: a reminder to pause, look closer, and rediscover the beauty in what surrounds us.