Aurora Over St. Luke’s is based on the night of 10–11 May 2024, when the Northern Lights appeared over Yorkshire.

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Aura rang to say they were visible right then, and when I looked outside the sky above my home was moving and pink. Through the camera lens the colours were incredible — pink, red, purple and neon green.

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We had been experiencing lots of solar flares and CMEs as the sun moved toward solar maximum, and I knew there was a chance the auroras might reach as far south as my home in Yorkshire. Even so, I never imagined I’d see them here, over my familiar back‑window view of St. Luke’s Church in Norland. I’d always dreamed of visiting Iceland or northern Scandinavia to see them, not witnessing them at home.

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This painting feels like catching the energy, photons and particles emitted from the sun — the same forces shown in Flare — but on a human scale. A reminder of how the sun’s storms can reach all the way to us, transforming an ordinary night into something extraordinary.