There was a time when we were told, “no victor, no vanquished.” We were at war and we had just finished fighting ourselves. That was a different time. Yet decades later, our land still bears the scars of conflict, violence, and loss. We are in a different kind of the same time now.

Every year, more names are added to the long list of those who have paid the ultimate price; soldiers, teachers, parents, children, and ordinary citizens whose only desire was to live in peace. From the battlefields of yesterday to the tragedies of today, a tidal wave of heroes’ blood has been poured into the soil of this country. Their sacrifices have become part of her story. And sometimes, looking at the state of things, it is difficult not to ask whether those sacrifices were in vain.

This painting, Sunset on Heroes’ Blood, was born from that question.

But this is not a painting about despair, because even as the sun sets, it also promises another dawn. And perhaps the greatest way to honour the heroes who came before us is not simply to remember their sacrifice, but to continue the work they left behind.