Light, Stillness, and the Space Between: Art, Gratitude, and the Beauty of Light
- Nov 19, 2025
- 3 min read
By Marion King
There are places that hold light in different ways. For me, those places are oceans apart: the wild landscape of western Ireland and the still heart of the UAE desert.
Between the mist and the shimmering heat, my work finds its rhythm, anchored in quiet gratitude.
Painting is how I listen.
My canvases speak in soft and earthy tones, layered like fragments of memory. They hold their own light, alive with traces of breath and presence. When I paint, I am not chasing beauty. I am listening for it.
It feels like a gentle rebellion in a world that celebrates the finished glow but rarely pauses for the becoming. While many measure success in moments of exposure, I build mine through moments of return: to silence, to gratitude, to what is real.
Between Desert Light and Ocean Mist
In Al Ain, an inland oasis surrounded by dunes and date palms, I paint in stillness.
The desert teaches me simplicity. It is a place where noise falls away and only its essence remains.
There is a rhythm to the heat. It reveals what is essential.
That space helps me listen more deeply.
When I return to Ireland, everything shifts. The ocean breathes in colour: indigo, greens and misted silver.
Ireland speaks of ancestral healing, the desert speaks of clarity. I need both, my roots and the stillness.
My latest collection, Traces of Self, weaves these worlds together. Paintings that feel both grounded and ethereal, both belonging and becoming.
Each piece is a quiet offering, a thank you to the landscapes that shape my way of seeing.
The Gift of Noticing
As the desert awakens, I step outside and walk. For twenty-five minutes, before emails, before painting, before words, I move through still streets and gardens, quietly naming the things I am grateful for.
It is how I begin. Those walks keep me grounded. They remind me of what is constant: breath, light, possibility.
It was on one of those early walks that the idea for my Virtual Gathering arrived, a gentle space where others could experience the same sense of calm and creative reflection.
Twice a year, I am now offering these gatherings freely, guided by the rhythm of the Celtic seasons: at Samhain, celebrating the descent into darkness, endings, release and the unseen; and at Beltane, honouring the rising into light, creation, fertility and new beginnings.
They are invitations to pause, to feel, to remember that we are part of these cycles too.
Through these gatherings, I share my practice of gratitude as an offering from the heart.
Generosity is not always loud. Sometimes it is simply showing up with an open heart.
A Season of Gentle Glamour
As the year folds toward winter, my rituals deepen. I light a candle before I paint, walk the desert paths at dusk, and mix pigments that echo my inner landscape.
My kind of glamour is not sequined. It glows from within.
This season, as The Scoop celebrates “Giving Thanks in Glam,” I offer a different vision of style, one measured not by sparkle but by sincerity.
Gratitude is the glow that never fades.
And in my hands, that glow becomes art, ethereal, timeless and authentic. A reminder that beauty is not what dazzles; it is what endures.
Connect With Marion
Instagram: @marionkingart
Facebook: @marionkingart
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