Where Light in Darkness Lies

By Claire Cansick

The sea is, at the moment, my main subject; I utilise thin layers of oil, diluted with various mediums, to create undulating, sensuous movement on the surface, imitating the complex facets of waves, meditative, repetitive, yet never the same. A dark depth in the foreground gives way to reflected light from brooding skies, ominous and tinged with violet, as English skies often are at dawn. These waves act as conduits for more complex ideas; skeletal forms tumble within womb like arcs, their stories unheard; faces and eyes emerge in the lustrous glossy surface; distant ships drift silently on the horizon almost merging with the sky. Myth laden shadows, tell tales of figures beyond the frame, and beyond reality; yet somehow they are tethered in the familiar. Torn between light and dark, joy and fear, inner and outer worlds, they dance and swell, becoming like rock, land, grass or cloud. They speak our shadow relationship with nature, how we grapple with the paradoxes of awe, fear and the uncontrollable wild.

Adventure Oil and acrylic on gesso, diptych 61 x 101cm, 2025

Where Light in Darkness Lies Oil on gesso panel diptych 40.5 x 60.5cm, 2026

Claire Cansick is an artist from Great Yarmouth, with a BA from Norwich University of the Arts. Claire’s work is inspired by a deep concern for the natural world, themes of self and the unknown elements of nature, while weaving in historical tales and an obsession with classic fiction. Claire has exhibited widely in the UK including at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Art, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Norwich Castle Museum, and in a solo exhibition at Firstsite 2023. Claire’s work is in the Government Art Collection, and multiple private collections worldwide.