Govinda Sah ‘Azad’s paintings are informed by a combination of his inner habit of musing about the hidden nature of reality and his close attention to the details of his external physical surroundings. His longstanding fascination with the indeterminate matter of clouds illuminated by natural light prompts him to meditate upon Nature’s more spiritual aspects. "Incandescence" developed out of a painting initially influenced by Leonardo's drawn studies (A Deluge, c. 1517) of a disastrous, almost apocalyptic, flood of water in France. Finding that painting, begun in early 2025, too dark, Sah began adding in colours that eventually suffused the interior with an intensely glowing light. While following along in this unanticipated direction, news arrived about the wind-spread wild fires raging through California and causing untold damage. From that moment on, the painting took on an expressive life of its own. Although having no prior knowledge of the disaster occurring half way around the world, Sah felt himself to be a "medium" whose painting was already attuned to the terrible events of that distant disaster. Composed of densely interwoven layers of mark-making, Sah’s canvases are created using oil and acrylic paints in what he describes as a ‘long unfolding conversation between artist and canvas.'