I Always Saw the Moon in Colour Before the World Caught Up

This week I was surprised to see new, clear images of the Moon’s surface, explosions of rainbow colour, so similar to the way I have been painting it for over a year. It is funny how instinct and intuition can somehow hold truth before science confirms it. That is how I felt when I saw these images. As though I had always known the Moon was a quiet, wonderful beauty, something far beyond a spectrum of grey. VIEW

The minerals in the Moon’s surface give it its colour. Blue tones appear in areas rich in titanium, particularly within the darker ancient lava plains known as maria (from the Latin mare, meaning “sea”). Hues of red and orange come from iron, while yellows reflect a mix of different minerals.

The overall dullness comes from years of solar radiation and constant impacts from meteorites, which have softened and muted it over time. Our human eyes tend to see the Moon as grey for this reason, we perceive contrast more easily than the subtle colours.

I have been painting the moon in colour as a meditative practice, giving myself permission to mix complementary and contrasting tones within its craters and depths. As a traditional painter, this subject has allowed me to simply play, to express.

In a similar way to Jackson Pollock, who gesturally splashed paint onto canvas, I could swirl and dance with my brush.

I would loosely use images of the Moon as reference, but allow my inner eye to guide how I saw it that day, whether the colours I chose were reflections of my emotions, or simply the act of discovering colour friendships and letting them laugh together on the canvas, I am not sure.

I do not over think it and maybe that is why it feels so refreshing. When I paint portraits, or attempt to be true to life, I can become too stoic in my approach, too tight, too distant from my soul...

but when I paint the Moon in colour, my soul joins in.

La Luna Colorata (The Colourful Moon), newest painting, explores the rich lunar landscape and areas of vibrant colour saturation inspired by the Moon’s natural mineral variations. Original contemporary celestial artwork available for collection. www.gracelustri.com

The moon has aura, a soft and gentle light, a reminder that even in the darkness there is a beacon of beauty, a celestial reminder that if all alone, all lost, all anxious, all sleepless, something is still trying to gift you beauty right when you need it most. So, the moon in our night sky is a gift of beauty from the Creator. I often think of the Genesis verse when painting, “God made two great lights, the greater to rule the day and the lesser to rule the night.”

Sometimes the sun is harsh, it is too bright that we cannot look at it for too long, even our eyes are not biologically capable of viewing it without causing blindness. But the moon, perhaps lesser, is something we can stare at for as long as we like, and as humans perhaps we need it more, for the day is busy and we can push aside what nighttime makes scarier.

With the contemplation of the moon, even if 384,400 km away and only a rock in orbit with our planet, it can bless our night with light and colour.

Grace xx