Winter Ice is a large-scale painting that depicts a frozen lake. Built up in multiple layers over a 6-month period, the artwork reveals itself slowly to the viewer. Sky pinks and orange glows radiate from behind the forest trees. Pockets of colour also meander across the edge of the lake, breathing life into an otherwise desolate place. Icy blue bounces from the sky into the frozen lake. Branches from the thin trees in the foreground are scratched into the surface of the canvas, offering a subtle texture on the bark. The painting is based on the effects of evening light in the Mourne Mountains.

Night Glow is from a new body of work that sees Ciaran Magill explore rural landscapes before and after storms, from daylight through to twilight. This painting captures the edge of a forest. It is an alluring scene with striking shadows that pierce the foreground. Light floods through the trees to breathe warmth into an otherwise cold and dark environment. Magill combines a sense of eeriness with gentle romantic depictions, often creating a mystical quality. The artist invites the viewer to imagine wandering through this magical place, combining the warmth of a sunset light with a pervading darkness of the impeding nightfall. The painting is rich in colour, texture and the use of line, offering a feast for the senses.

Inspired by recent forest fires in Australia and California, Orange Glow features a hazy mist, enveloping a nearby tree. The dark carcass-like structure appears anchored in the foreground of fluid purple hues. The mossy surface offers hope that organic life will return to this desolate scene. The scorched Earth, like a scene from a war movie, is somewhat hypnotic, drawing our gaze inwards to decipher what may be lurking just beyond the haze. Apocalyptic but also full of hope, the warm glow offers its own sense of beauty... 

Elevation offers a wonderful view. As if gazing out of an aeroplane, we watch clouds roll over a lush green mountain scape. Strong shadows expose rugged textures in the slopes below. Ice and snow seem to mingle with the clouds in a gentle harmony, with an infusion of delicate pinks born from the sunset. Exploring an elevated perspective on the landscape, Magill has been inspired by the dynamic depth of space that was introduced by the Chinese painters during the era of the Sung Dynasty Landscape Movement.

Deep Red Glow is like a vortex of energy, rotating through the sky, as if a volcanic eruption has sent the sky ablaze with crimson pulses. The deepness of the red can also be associated with the inside of the body, referencing the flow of blood through our veins, that inner life-force that flows through us, sometimes racing and volatile, other times steady. Part of the magic of this semi-abstract is the duality in which it both encapsulates the microscopic world and the world beyond. The imagery seems to oscillate between biology, geology and cosmology. Is something forming before our eyes, or is it dissolving? An image of the red planet, Mars? A roaring red forest blaze? A sunset storm over the ocean? A tornado ripping up the surface of a field? A river of molten lava tumbling towards us? A beating heart? It can be all of these things and so much more. The reward of an ambiguous image is the way in which it can excite our mind to make sense of the visual language. This is contemporary painting at its most engaging.