Pastel

2025

A smoke tree grove

A crimson dream unfolds—wild, untamed, alive. A smoke tree grove, drenched in deep reds and fiery embers, rises from the quiet like a vision aflame. It does not burn, yet it smolders with an intensity that feels almost too real, too fierce to be contained within the delicate strokes of pastel. The air itself seems to shimmer with heat, the swirling red mist curling and twisting like whispered secrets of fire.

Amongst the blaze-like glow, the trees stand—bizarrely curved, their brown trunks twisted into elegant, almost tortured forms. They do not resist; they sway, they bend, they surrender to the force that engulfs them, yet they are not consumed. The smoke, thick with emotion, clings to their shapes, wrapping around them in a fevered embrace, as if trying to draw them deeper into the illusion of fire.

But this is not destruction. This is transformation.

The smoke trees, their branches reaching like outstretched hands, shimmer with a quiet resilience, as if absorbing the energy that surrounds them, as if becoming one with the burning hues that dance through the air. The red mist pulses, a heartbeat in color, a storm of feeling woven into light. It is passion, it is movement, it is the moment before something changes forever.

And yet, for all its fire, there is softness here. The pastels cradle the intensity, holding it in a gentle grasp, making the heat feel like a memory, like something just beyond reach. This is not a fire that destroys—it is a fire that reveals, that transforms, that lingers in the mind long after the last ember fades.

Here, in this fleeting moment of stillness and flame, the trees whisper their silent poetry: We are not burning. We are becoming.

24.7cm x 32cm