I was in the middle of a phone call, walking barefoot outside, feeling the earth beneath my feet.
Then I saw them—flames, bright and fierce, crawling over the top of a nearby hill. I froze for a moment and hung up.In the next six minutes, I was in the car, driving away, my heart racing in sync with the rhythm of the fire.
The flames were enormous, swallowing the hill whole, and as I watched, it felt like the end of something—apocalyptic, as if nature itself was crying out.It was painful to witness. The vibrant greenery that stood tall just moments before was gone in an instant. Trees, their leaves dancing in the wind, now reduced to shadows of their former selves.
Any creatures that called this place home, they didn’t ask for this. They didn’t want to die. But the fire showed no mercy.After it was over, I gathered ashes from the scorched land. It felt like gathering memories of the local nature that was once there, the remains of lives lived and lost. I wanted to honor them, to remember that they had once been alive, and vibrant.
So, I mixed those ashes into my paint, letting them become part of something new. I wanted to show that from destruction, from loss, there’s always the seed of something more. Life will rise again, from the ashes, as it always does. In my art, I can see it—new life taking shape, emerging from what was.
Each stroke of the brush carries the weight of that event, but also the hope of regeneration. Because that’s what the earth does. She rebuilds, she heals. And from the ashes, she always creates something beautiful once more.
In my painting, I have depicted my emotions during and after the wildfires I had to evacuate from in September 2024 in Portugal, as well as inspiration from precognitive dreams I had before the event that warned be to leave the place.In one dream, I was covered with dark scars, and in another, I was surrounded by a heavy, greyish-dark, round-shaped substance. I couldn’t fully express these feelings in words, so I made a quick drawing at the time that you can see here. I believe they were premonitions but unfortunately I didn´t trust my intuition, stayed there and later had to evacuate from the wildfires.My paintings incorporate ashes from the wildfires, which will serve as the foundation for new trees to grow. Also on the painting it looks like small trees are growing out from the dark spots which for me also represent, what is called post traumatic growth in psychology. It is the positive change that can happen after going through some really traumatic and stressful experiences.
Specks of Love 7, 60 x 80 cm, wood ashes, sand from Portugal, clay, water from levadas, acrylic on canvas, 2024
