There’s a particular joy in recognising home somewhere unexpected. A familiar Filipino pantry staple, a childhood dish, the blue of a sea you haven’t swum in for years. In Peter Francisco’s paintings, everyday things become vivid reminders of the Philippines, stirring nostalgia in those who know them and inviting others to look closer.

Born in the Philippines, Peter moved to Australia in 2019. Now based on Kaurna Country in Adelaide, the Filipino-Australian artist works across watercolour, oils and acrylics, with remarkable precision and a playful eye for cultural detail. Beneath the familiar scenes sit complicated feelings: the pride of starting again, the guilt of leaving and the ache of missing home.

Memories of his late mother run through his practice, lending tenderness to the childhood moments he preserves on canvas. Recently, Peter has turned to the Philippine seas, longing for their familiar warmth. His painting Solitude captures that yearning, made all the more meaningful when it found a home with a fellow Filipino in the Netherlands.

Like a cabinet of curiosities, Peter gathers fragments of his past and gives them life through paint. His work reminds us that home doesn’t disappear when we leave. Sometimes it’s waiting in a familiar colour, a remembered flavour or a painting that makes someone, thousands of kilometres away, feel closer to where they came from.