Stormy Moonrise

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This is 'Stormy Moonrise', in watercolour and gouache, 20 x 10.5" (50 x 27 cm) approximately. It's a work of the imagination and is based on my very fond childhood memories of sitting at my bedroom window, watching storms light up the clouds in the distance. I've always found the night sky beautiful and I'm always fascinated by the colours in it, from the deep, dark blue-black of a clear sky to the warm tints produced by the yellow moonlight. In this painting I wanted to capture the whole lot together, and I had a lot of fun creating it. I quite deliberately aimed to get completely carried away in this world I was creating, paying less attention to style than to creating drama and contrast at every turn. The clouds are warm and luminous, which contrasts against the deep blues of their darkened areas and the sky, where a few stars show. The moon itself is full and bright, lighting up the clouds silver edges with brilliant flares and dominating the centre of the image. The storm shows several simultaneous lightning flashes and illuminates the clouds and the surrounding driving rain with an eerie red light. You might have expected the sea to be rough; instead, it is flat calm because I wanted to convey my sense of childhood wonder that a storm so powerful could be silent in the distance, giving a light show but no sound. I really enjoyed getting carried away with this painting, and I think it shows!