Night Moves

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Blood Moon 9 x 12” Oil John Hulsey

To us, painting under the full moon provides an invigorating restoration of spirit. There is a remarkable quality to the nighttime environment that can add some magic to a painting experience. We recently had the opportunity to do some nighttime painting under the September Blood Moon. The process is a little different from daytime plein air painting. Setting up needs to be done early, with enough light to sketch a map of the composition on canvas before the dark sets in and the moon rises. This September moon rose at 7:45 pm in a dusky, but still fairly bright sky. This gave us time to memorize the landscape details before full darkness set in and dissolved all detail into deep shadows. And then the race began!

The rapidity of light change seems even more escalated as the full moon rises and the sky darkens. “Chasing the light” is a phrase used in plein air painting—an impossible task. One must choose a moment, take a…