Three Views With Red Hot Pokers

This work began as three individual vertical compositions, each developed separately before being joined together and extensively reworked to form a unified artwork. The trees and plant forms in the left and right panels serve to bookend the central panel, framing the composition and anchoring the viewer’s gaze. The central panel is designed to establish a quiet dialogue with the viewer, drawing them into the scene and guiding their attention toward the focal point: the red-hot pokers. These flowers provide a visual and thematic anchor around which the rest of the composition is arranged. The shadows in the foreground not only add depth but also help create a linear pattern and rhythmic flow across the panels. This also provides a sense of movement that is echoed in the positioning and gestures of the tree branches above.

This painting is from the exhibition and publication, Gardens: Fragments of Life and Loss – an artistic enquiry that systematically explores themes of memory, impermanence, and transformation through the motif of the garden. Drawing upon visual language and observational practices, the body of work investigates how natural environments serve as metaphors for human experience, particularly in relation to loss and regeneration. The paintings communicate knowledge by documenting and interpreting the cyclical processes of change and adaptation in nature, offering insights into how landscapes reflect emotional and cultural memory. This body of work contributes to interdisciplinary dialogues between art, ecology, and the human condition through a methodical engagement with site, material, and temporality.