Samuel Lucas
Instagram: @sam.uel.lucas
Email: seatanbusiness@gmail.com
Ritualistic self-creation and acts of devotion are Samuel Lucas’ centre, where the journey of painting feels like a meditative trance. Pulling from Greek mythology, repetitive symbolism and storytelling to world build, in which the divine is complex and a fluid sense of self. Overlapping themes of fate and transformation further entangle this divine and queer. Queerness and transness allow Lucas a gateway to creating this separate reality. Aspects of spirituality help interlink everything and pool recurring imagery and themes, from tarot and gods to the purpose of elements, the way that water transforms perfectly encapsulating the trans experience of fluidity.
The complex formation and impossibility of finding connections to those who you cross paths with and create relationships. Those invisible strings that tether Lucas to his community and community to itself are what drive his work. The untold language that seeing another queer or trans person and not explicitly needing an explanation of their sense of self to be understood, brings forth the solid foundation for which we build pillars to lean on.
This formation of community, ritual and devotion lead into a spiritual practice. Construction of altars and temples, playing with the scale of the work taking the literal construction of these places into his display methods to create safe spaces. Grand things of which you gaze upon with the knowledge you are being watched right back. Samuel Lucas takes this attention to concepts and their purpose into exploration of the methodology and materiality of his art process. The act of creating a frame, stretching canvas and preparing the surface all connect Lucas to the painting.
‘Samuel as Hermaphroditus creating Salmacis fountain’
Oil on Canvas
2025
152 x 52 cm
Inspired by the tale of the creation of the Greek god Hermaphroditus, the formation of a pool of transition by a genderqueer god’s hand embraces transness as divine self-creation. Hermaphroditus looks to you, kneeling, offering for you to step forward into the waters. Hands posed as above so below, the blood of a pulled tooth: mutilate yourself and leave the pain and discomfort, and the pomegranate dissected in reflection of the consistent effort to peel a pomegranate at the cost of messing your own hands. Hints to the personal experience through floral imagery, the Victoria Cruziana blooms twice over the course of two nights. The first night blooming as a white female and the next as a pink male, societal expectations of the feminine and masculine challenged. Head tilted to the transition and the pomegranate, having already removed the discomfort and embracing the mess of needed to recreate the physical form. Water is determined as a transformative force within this queer otherworld.
‘Hayley as Circe’
Oil on Canvas
2025
100 x 200 cm
Circe looks down at you from her throne of Amethyst on the shores of Aeaea. Goddess of witchcraft, Circe protectors her island, acting as one of the two main pillars that protect the temple full of Dionysian Maenads. Inspiration from J. W. Waterhouse’s painting ‘Circe Offering the Cup of Ulysses’ in a more contemporary and queer approach, pushing against ideals of classical renaissance women made to look palatable and weak when viewed through paint. Removing the focus of man in storytelling. Texture and grit and drastic shadows that overbear onto the viewerto loom above. Circe stares directly at you, a look to disregard any of your strength as herb dyed hands rest upon her brow and lean upon her staff. Adorned in jewellery, a golden topper on her throne interwoven with nature hints towards biblical imagery of and a greater than life presence. The moon as a force that pulls and pushes the waves as they bleed over the edge to the viewer.
‘Zuleika as Eirene’
Oil on Canvas
2025
100 x 200 cm
As the only Queer but not Trans individual in these paintings, Zuleikas role as one of the two key pillars acts as a reminder of community. To protect others, standing with others when they wish to embrace themselves and be vulnerable is where allyship is truly shown. Water is not shown within the painting as transition is not needed, but the teal of Eirene’s dress shifts hues and moves fluid like the water she sees in others. Highly likely to believe Dionysus’ Maenads would have constructed such a gift to one who protects them as an offering and a thanks. Eirene blooms spring.
‘Robin as a Merman’
Oil on Canvas
2025
100 x 200 cm
A being made of sea, half-human, half-ocean. Whether by fate or embracing the water he is part of the ocean. The beauty of masculinity that embraces being soft, emotional and vulnerable his eyes half closed and relaxed. Surrounded by seashells and the constellations of Victoria cruziana waterlilies. Adorned in the gifts of the sea, he sits in the rockpools with the backdrop of Aeaea and hands poised to the place where Dionysus spills water down the land. Beauty in transition. Gender Euphoria. Tattooed upon the Merman’s skin across his chest highlights self-love and upon his arm other queer and gender non-conforming creatures, existence everywhere and always.
‘Esme as Aphrodite’
Oil on Canvas
2025
100 x 200 cm
Aphrodite is born of the seafoam, her existence upon the place of Aeaea as a sanctuary for the feminine. A divine being born from transformation and the embodiment of beauty. This painting highlights trans feminine peace, beauty and femininity. She holds a white Victoria Cruziana to add to her flower crown and a glow from the sun surrounds her head.
‘Damien as Dionysus’
Oil on Canvas
2025
100 x 200 cm
Dionysus, god wine, effeminate man, god of frenzy and escaping societal norms. Spiking the punch as it were (Dionysus is known for turning water to wine), he pours from his Kylix the essence of Salmacis Fountain. His Thyrsus rests upon the tree behind him, ivy leaves weaving across the painting and entangling all it touches. A playful belief among trans communities of Dionysus being the cause of trans people as he got drunk while shaping humans into clay. Dionysus was born a Demi-god, accepted into godhood and known for his empathy to the lives of mortals. A divine being in a place of power who has transitioned and looks over his followers and releases them from the restraints of what is expected of him. The safe haven of Aeaea protects Dionysus’ Maenads and embraces the change in the water as any turn of the seasons.
‘Charley as Freyja’
Oil on Canvas
2025
100 x 200 cm
Freyja is a Norse Goddess often associated with the Hearth. A symbol of love and fertility, she blesses the waters with her plants, made of fire to light and guide those to where they wish to be. She embraces of the waters of the Salmacis fountain, surrounded by a constellation of flickering lights.
‘Dionysian Maenads on the shore of Aeaea’
Oil on Canvas
2025
300 x 200 cm
The sun, the constellation of the water-bearer and the moon watch over the Maenads. Having emerged from the magenta dyed oceans they savour in the first breaths of their new forms upon the shore of Aeaea. Two of the eleven Dionysian followers embrace their new winged forms. The cyclic process of transition a constant fluid changing of the self as you live by the sun, stars and moon. Inspired by the dramatics of High Renaissance posing and camp flair for the dramatics.