Deciding how to honour the ashes of a loved one after a cremation is a deeply meaningful choice, one that carries profound emotional weight. We all want to celebrate the memories we shared in a way that feels both significant and personal.

By incorporating the ashes of your dear person or pet into a bespoke memorial artwork, you have a beautiful and lasting tribute that you can cherish every day in your own home.

My name is Zee and I have been working as a professional Artist since 2018. My abstract art is an ode to mother nature’s ever-changing balance and contrast, and an appreciation of the way it has helped me heal and grow as a person. Solidifying fluid movements in delicate layers of resin, my works invites the observer to stay curious; to come closer, to see these layers and details from different angles and in changing light. My art is a daily reminder that nature is always there for us to enjoy in all its moods and seasons. It’s there when we need solace, peace, grounding and stillness. A place to come back to ourselves.

Merging aerial perspectives with a vision of the ocean surface from below, I capture colours, textures, layers and patterns in my own abstract interpretation of the elements. My colour palettes are drawn from the sea, sky and earth; inspired by my travels abroad as well as my home in Cornwall, UK.

Creating bespoke art with ashes is a service I’ve been offering since 2024. For memorial artworks, only a small amount of ashes is required, allowing you to preserve the majority at home or scatter them in a meaningful location. I also offer the option to divide the ashes into multiple artworks for the bereaved, so that each person can have a personalised piece to remember your loved one by.

I work the ashes into the layers of resin by hand, in my studio in Newquay, Cornwall. They become part of the artwork itself — not sitting on top, but woven within the patterns and gradients, held inside the piece permanently under my signature glass-like resin surface. How much of the ashes is visible is something we can discuss together.

Additionally, you have the option of including an inscription that I embed within the resin layers, such as a few meaningful words, a quote, name(s) and/or date(s).

Most people, looking at a finished memorial piece, would not know the ashes were there. But the person who commissioned it does — and that knowledge transforms the way they experience the artwork every day.

My process is handled with the utmost care and respect. Any unused ashes are safely returned to you along with the completed artwork. There is no additional fee to incorporate ashes within a custom artwork and I ship worldwide, so ashes can be sent to my studio from abroad as well.

If this resonates with you and you’d like to discuss the options or find out more information, please visit my website.

Thank you,
Zee van Gils