‘Noctilucent Clouds withThe New Moon, Earth shine, Mercury Jupiter and Saturn’ Oil on canvas 90×180 cm 2022

3rd painting finished this year. Again it’s been a work in progress for almost 5 months, and has gone through some few changes along the way. As I start paintings I may have a vague idea of what the painting may turn into. This vagueness is always excitment and always unknown knowledge….. that whatever vague idea I may have is often just the wish to create an artwork, whatever direction it takes is a creative process a kind of a conversation and is as much up to what happens on the canvas, in the landscape and during the whole process….as it is with those vague thoughts/ideas. And the vagueness is absolutely deliberate, a well developed sense of lets just see. The problem is if I start with a definitive idea of what is to be it short circuits a large amount of the creative process that might take me in unexpected directions…..and the work I do is already more than sufficiently constrained……
 
In this case it begins with direct observation in sketchbooks sketches that don’t stop being done just because I start the painting, I may go back to the point of view and see whats happening and so it evolves over time. And in this case several terrific experiences happened that I just had to work into the painting.
 
The cirrus like clouds are an observation of noctilucent clouds, these are tenuous high level clouds that are only visible when the sun is about 6 degrees below the horizon, then there was the appearence on the 12th Dec of the new Moon with prominent Earth shine Mercury above and to the left of the Moon Jupiter above and to the right of the Moon and Saturn also to the right of Jupiter…..
 
Title…..
 
‘Noctilucent Clouds withThe New Moon, Earth shine, Mercury Jupiter and Saturn’ Oil on canvas 90×180 cm 2022