‘Over the past few years, I have completed a series of personal projects on people who have endured horrific experiences and struggles in the world of today and of the past. These include WW2 veterans, Holocaust survivors and the today’s refugees. Art became the medium for connection between the subjects of my portraiture and myself.

I found myself feeling extremely privileged as many of them hadn’t told their stories in almost 70 years. I had the honour of meeting and drawing these people while working to record their stories through art, yet as a young person it took an extraordinarily large emotional toll on me. In turn I found myself seeking ways to cope with these challenges, which is where I found landscapes. The juxtaposition between the sentimental detail of portraiture and the neutrality of natural landscapes was fundamental to my well-being as an artist.

I found that nature provides a familiar sanctuary. It allows the physical and the emotive to become one, and enables us to pour out our own frustrations and guilt

In doing so, one is connecting with the purest form that exists in this world, a form of peace where destruction seems alien. When there is such an abundance of death and atrocities in this world, it is empowering to witness so many people who take their pain and grow from it. This also reminds us of the restorative, healing aspects of nature which will always grow in spite of both natural and man-made disasters, constantly interacting with the ever-changing world around. The artwork in my exhibition has been created in situ throughout my travels to Norway and Scotland.

The pieces you see are captured moments of reflection upon times that have happened and the memories of those who are no longer with us. Most of the pieces focus on the forever changing beauty of light, reflecting how nothing remains constant but is ever-changing and transforming. It reminds me that often, what was once present may no longer be so. Looking back on these images brings an amalgamation of emotions from pain and loss, to hope and resolution.