Many moons

I’ve painted the moon many times, often with Venus. Any conjunction between the moon and Venus will always be stunning — Venus is the second-brightest natural object in the night sky after the moon and together they are particularly spectacular. To me they seem to be old friends — revelling in each other’s beauty and whispering tales of the universe to each other.

The moon is comforting to me. It is a constant. Whether feeling sorrowful or joyful, I look at the moon. It gives me perspective and a relative position and reminds me how beautiful the world is — regardless of anything else that’s going on. The moon looks down on us and witnesses everything, our dreams and nightmares, forever silently reflecting light. There is a secret language that unites fellow moon lovers: “Have you seen the moon tonight?”

I’ve alluded to the moon in other paintings, for example Oscar Wilde loves the moon (2017), a portrait of Wilde which I titled after reading a quote by him: ‘With freedom, books, flowers and the moon, who could not be happy?’

A favourite poem by e.e. cummings:

Amores (III)

there is a
moon sole
in the blue
night

amorous of waters
tremulous,
blinded with silence the
undulous heaven yearns where

in tense starlessness
anoint with ardor
the yellow lover

stands in the dumb dark
svelte
and
urgent

(again
love i slowly
gather
of thy languorous mouth the

thrilling
flower)