Shadows of Man

2026
oil painting
60 x 90 cm

I am on the deadman’s picket, dawn is breaking. But the valley is still in a cold dark shadow, waiting for the sun to appear over the top of the distant, rugged, valley wall.

Like a peeping eye, the first sun rays spread to the other side of the valley, illuminating the upper ridges of the closest valley wall. As the sun rises, the shadow slowly recedes in a horizontal line.

Just before the sun rays greet the valley floor, a radiant transformation magically occurs: the whole valley wall glows into shining colours. It’s a moment of nature’s glory. In later years, it felt wrong to find beauty in Afghanistan; I was deployed to fight the fight. So I included the shadows of the Twin Towers within the painting, just to remind everyone that amongst nature’s beauty are mankind’s acts of terror.