Nocturnes

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Moonrise Road Oil John Hulsey

“I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day”.
-Vincent Van Gogh

Painting at night in bright moonlight is great fun and a wonderful learning experience for the outdoor artist. It seems as if we have the world to ourselves, and what a delightful, mysterious world it is! Working outdoors on a pleasant night opens up our senses to the sounds, smells and mystical light that many people rarely bother to notice. Artists have been making night paintings since the early 17th century, and there is no end in sight—exactly the impression one gets when looking at a dark landscape at night—no end to it, just ever deeper tones of dark and dusky blues.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler first coined the word “nocturne” for his moonlight paintings. In a letter to his patron, musician Frederick Leyland, Whistler wrote: “I say I can’t thank you too much for the name ’nocturne’ as a title for my moonlig…