The Quiet Ritual Before Arrival

Some paintings arrive quietly.

Not to explain anything,

not to resolve grief,

but simply to sit beside emotions that do not know where else to go.

[ The Quiet Ritual Before Arrival ], Digital Sketch, with Procreate & Apple Pencil, 2019

This piece began as a sketch sometime before I became a mother of two boys —

a strange in-between season where excitement and fear shared the same room. While painting, I imagined a small whimsical world preparing for new arrivals.

Storks waiting patiently.

Tiny teddy bears hanging gently from a line.

Clouds soft enough to hold uncertainty. The ritual of washing and preparing the storks before flight felt strangely sacred to me — almost like a quiet act of care before souls begin their journey earthside. And somewhere within the process, I noticed the same thing I have witnessed many times in the studio: the body settles when the hands are given somewhere honest to go. Painting digitally allows me to return to an image in small pockets of time.

A sketch while waiting.

A few layers added during a journey.

The slow gathering of details across many ordinary moments. There is something about symbols and imagined worlds that continues to draw me in—some emotions breathe more easily there. And slowly, space appeared for joy to enter again. I think art sometimes helps us hold many truths at once:

love and grief,

fear and hope,

memory and new beginnings.

[ The Quiet Ritual Before Arrival ], Digital Painting, with Procreate V.5.4.10 & Apple Pencil, on iPad Pro, 2026.

This painting is part of an ongoing series of whimsical oil works exploring memory, tenderness, and the quiet inner worlds we continue carrying with us. Over the years, I have come to realise that art does more than help me express emotion.

It helps me regulate, reflect, soften, and return. And perhaps because of that, it continues to help me become a gentler mother.

Happy Mother’s Day – and thank you, Art.

“The soul speaks in images.”— James Hillman

Figure 1. My Angel [Oil on canvas] by Kit Louis, 2017.

Figure 2. Sunday Mass - The Otter Boys, [Oil on canvas] by Kit Louis, 2017.

Figure 3. Rooster Boy and Flamingo Hunter Boots, [Oil on canvas] by Kit Louis, 2017.

Figure 3. My Giant Sticker Book, [Oil on canvas] by Kit Louis, 2017.

Figure 5. Frigatebird's Heart, [Digital Art with Procreate] by Kit Louis, 2018.

"My Whimsical Journey with Naveen"series by Kit Louis.