I have always been interested in drawing the moon; its circular form being both abstract and detailed at the same time.
I guess there has been a lot of sky gazing with Nasa's Artemis II mission. I am not sure about having moon bases. I would like it to stay a magical and more mysterious. I saw such a beautiful exhibition at Leeds Art Gallery called "Don't Let's Ask for the Moon" , which keeps it that way. The exhibition brought together John Atkinson Grimshaw's Moonlights from the 1880's alongside more contemporary nocturnal landscapes.
It is on until April 19th so not much time left to see it!
I really loved this painting by Judith Tucker called Night Fitties.."it's been so silent, no traffic, how it would have been, the sky bluer". It made me think of lockdown and it was painted in 2022 so maybe it is a refection of that time.
It made me want to paint more night time scenes..I have dabbled with dusk with this..
It has a little moon just on the horizon. I called it "The moon is down" purely because I love John Steinbeck! The print is still available in my shop.
And of course I have drawn and printed this moon..
So watch this space for more moon landscapes. The exhibition included a John Berger quote that really resonated with me:
"Landscapes can be deceptive. Sometimes a landscape seems to be less a setting for the life of its inhabitants than a curtain behind which their struggles, achievements and accidents takes place. For those who are behind the curtain, landmarks are no longer only geographic but also biographical and personal."
I will keep trying to describe this in my paintings..
