nspired by: Matilda, from the novel Dasem by Amr Tarek

Size: 100 × 70 cm

Medium: Oil on canvas

Year: 2025

“And the Darkness Answered First”  is an intimate and haunting portrayal of Matilda a woman suspended in the fragile space between despair and surrender. Kneeling beside the dim glow of a lantern, she reaches upward, not in defiance but in a quiet plea. Her white dress, softly illuminated against the heavy shadows, speaks to purity, longing, and the vulnerable solitude of isolation. The painting captures the silence before answers arrive if they ever do. A stillness dense with grief and resistance, where weight meets fragility. In Matilda’s gesture, there is a question, yet it is the darkness that responds first. Executed in warm, moody tones and layered textures, this work evokes the cinematic stillness of a memory caught outside of time. It is a visual echo of Matilda’s inner world unspoken, unresolved, unforgettable.

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