The story behind the print
One late August evening, my partner and I were having dinner with friends. I’d been spending a lot of time indoors and was feeling a little claustrophobic. At the end of the night, we went to drive one of them home. We stepped outside, and there she was: unmissable and glowing, the full moon.
After dropping our friend off, my partner suggested we stop by the seafront to take it all in. That’s where I took the reference photo for this piece. It was a warm night on the pebble beach, with no one around but the two of us, the moon veiled by thin layers of cloud, her sparkling reflection on the sea. We spent a couple of hours there, chatting and admiring the view. It was the reminder I needed: even when life is busier than I’d like and I’m less immersed in nature than I’d hoped, I am never truly separated from it.
This print was the perfect opportunity to practise something I’ve wanted to try for a long time: building rich, deep colours. A night sky felt like the perfect subject. I used a mixture of indigo and Prussian blue. It’s a reduction print, which means only one block is used. After each layer is printed, I carve away a little more of the same block, so there’s no going back to an earlier stage. It took three layers to get the depth I wanted. I considered adding a fourth to separate the sea from the sky, but decided there was something lovely and poetic about letting the two blend together.
I hope this piece brings a little of that night onto your wall: a reminder that there is always something out there to inspire us, if we take the time to notice it.
