Evening at St Michael's Mount

The painting that started something. A familiar Cornish landmark, transformed by darkness and artificial light. Evening at St Michael's Mount was my first real experiment with painting a nightscape, long before I knew where that experiment would lead.

Before I painted at night, I photographed it.

I was fascinated by long-exposure photography and the way a camera could reveal a completely different world after dark. For this image, St Michael's Mount was illuminated in yellow against the deep blue of the evening, a contrast I couldn't resist trying to capture on canvas.

At just 30×30cm, it was an experiment: could I make night feel convincing in paint?

Looking back, my style has moved on considerably, but there's something about the bold colour and simplicity of this little painting that people still respond to. When I first shared it online, it sold that very evening.

Only with hindsight can I see its real significance.

This was where I first discovered just how much possibility there was in painting after dark.