‘Moonrise’ included in the SFSA Painting Open 2024 - Preview on 5th December 2024
Alexandra Blum, ‘Moonrise’, watercolour on paper, 12.5 × 18cm (unframed size), £450 (including frame).
I'm feeling excited by watercolour paint. I love the way it's fluid as well as linear, and feels so close to drawing. Its colour and luminosity also enable me to focus on aspects of the world I hadn't previously: the transitions between night and day for example, and I’m very much looking forward to exhibiting Moonrise in the SFSA Painting Open 2024 exhibition.
The Preview takes place on Thursday 5th December, 18.00 - 21.00, at no format Gallery, Studio NF01, Casting House, Moulding Lane, Deptford, London, SE14 6BN.
If you would like to join us for mulled wine and great conversations at the Preview, please contact me to let us know. We’d love to see you there!
The show will also be open: 6th - 8th December and 12th - 15th December 2024, 13.00 - 18.00
Scroll down to take a closer look at ‘Moonrise’….
DETAIL from: Alexandra Blum, ‘Moonrise’, watercolour on paper, 12.5 × 18cm (unframed size), £450 (including frame).
One evening, I caught a glimpse of a full moon from my studio window, and was taken by surprise by the intensity of its glow...
DETAIL from: Alexandra Blum, ‘Moonrise’, watercolour on paper, 12.5 × 18cm (unframed size), £450 (including frame).
....and the clarity of its 'face', which seemed to return my gaze with equal surprise
DETAIL from: Alexandra Blum, ‘Moonrise’, watercolour on paper, 12.5 × 18cm (unframed size), £450 (including frame).
I loved the way the lights of a plane, as it emerged from the horizon, were like a series of stars moving towards me.
DETAIL from: Alexandra Blum, ‘Moonrise’, watercolour on paper, 12.5 × 18cm (unframed size), £450 (including frame).
I wanted the watercolour paint to be descriptive of the moon, tower blocks, disused factory chimney, clouds and trees, yet for each brush mark to also assert its presence as an area of paint, a patch of coloured pigment....
Alexandra Blum, ‘Moonrise’, watercolour on paper, 12.5 × 18cm (unframed size), £450 (including frame).
....I love the way gazing at the moon makes me feel aware of a vast, interplanetary scale, which seems to set the city and human activity within a cosmic perspective. My hope is that the varied densities of areas of coloured paint, and the rhythm created by the placement of each mark, allows the viewer's body as well as their eyes to respond to the image, so that the cosmic scale is felt as well as seen.
Image credit: Victoria Sills
With 100 artists, taking part in the SFSA Painting Open 2024, each exhibiting one small scale painting, there will be lots to see and buy.
Hope you'll join us for a drink and a chat at the Preview on 5th December, 18.00 - 21.00!