ZIMMERMAN ART GALLERY

Previous Exhibitions

February 2018 - new paintings by Andrew Moon

For the month of February 2018, ZIMMERMAN is featuring new paintings by Andrew Moon.   

Andrew Moon: artist's commentary for this exhibition

“Many of my concept pieces feature my immediate family. Originally this was for reasons of pure convenience – they were the artist models who were always within reach! But over time they have also become more central actors throughout the creative process. Because they have now sat for me so many times, they already have a good idea of what I’m looking for in terms of light fall and shadow, and make their own suggestions or adjustments even as they sit.

 

Later, during the painting process, I bring them into the studio to critique what I’ve done. It’s easy to lose objectivity when you’re working on a piece day in and day out. And while it’s sometimes hard to endure someone calling your baby ugly, ultimately I find it really useful (once I’ve finished sulking) to see things from a different perspective. For me it’s about being more aware of how someone might see it for the first time, and it helps me produce a painting that I feel is more complete or polished.

 

My daughter Josie, who features in many of my paintings, is now pursuing her own creative career – in music. This in itself has continued to be useful, as I find that creativity in itself inspires more creativity. 

 

Josie was the model for two recent paintings, Stand and Advance. The works are companion pieces, in that they are recognisably of a similar theme in a similar setting, and they are the same size (120 x 90 cm). But I have set out to have them both convey different sensations.

 

I selected the colour palette for each to be highly vibrant and striking, but also unique – they are not historical depictions. The composition for each character is different: Stand shows an alert and defensive posture, while Advance shows a deliberate charge forward. In this way, with their individual compositions and colour palettes, each piece conveys a different response to the same stimulus - which is the stimulus of being challenged or threatened in some way. And my intent is to convey not only two different possible responses (or choices), but also to convey them with two different feelings or moods.”

 

Andrew Moon’s new paintings are on display at ZIMMERMAN from 1 to 28 February 2018

 

Featured images (all are oil on canvas paintings by Andrew Moon, 2017)

 

Advance, 120 x 90 cm
Stand, 120 x 90 cm
Fragment 1, 50 x 40 cm
Fragment 2, 50 x 50 cm
Brood, 90 x 60 cm

Brief artist bio

Andrew Moon is a self-taught artist based on the Kapiti Coast. 

Painting mainly in oil and acrylic, Moon is inspired by the realist styles and techniques of a range of Old Masters. He enjoys working with an emphasis on the harsh lighting contrasts of chiaroscuro (exaggerated contrasts of light and dark). Finding inspiration in the works of 17th Century masters such as Caravaggio, Velazquez and Rembrandt, Moon’s intensely illuminated figures are often picked out from shadowy backgrounds by bold, directional sources of light. 

The influence of Caravaggio, in particular, is visible in a number of Moon’s works. In similar fashion to the Old Master, Moon takes as his models the people close or familiar to him, transforming family members and friends into models for compositions ranging from the historic to the contemporary.

 

While Moon enjoys exploring a range of subjects and settings for his paintings, he often returns to portraits and people, drawn back by the challenge and intensity of the human form.