Edward Twohig | Super Moon

 All of the prints are pulled from plates drawn from nature in drypoint 'en plein air' on nights when the Super Moon appeared at its brightest.  The plates were refined in Edward's print studio and tones were built up using painterly monoprint techniques. Combining the drypoint plates with expermentative monoprint marks gave Edward the scope to explore the compositions in a number of variations, calibrating tonal effects, ink washes, densities of printing and even different types of paper to myriad effect.

In Edward’s Super Moon pieces, the drypoint mark lends the moonscapes the “electrically charged” feeling that Edward describes them as having – as if the leaves are standing to attention, the energy of the moon’s light coursing through them.

During the occurrences of these supermoons, Edward found that the moon’s “luminosity was silhouetted against the trees and spindly branches … as if they were electrically charged”. It was this magnetic vibrancy, which Edward describes as having “tingled the spine and optic nerves” during his nightly vigils, that made the artist feel that he had to commit these scenes to paper.

These works awaken us to the timeless beauty and intricacy of drypoint printmaking and remind us of the fleeting conditions that allow for the breath-taking elegance and beauty of our natural surroundings.  

It is Edward's hope that these works will not only delight art lovers, but will also prompt us to look up at the sky more often, and with added appreciation.

As Galileo wrote in The Starry Messenger (1610), “It is a beautiful and delightful sight to behold the body of the moon”.

This wonderful collection of monoprints both comforts and unsettles the viewer, like something out of a Victorian fairy tale.  The ethereal tableaux of moon, sky, and foliage were Edward’s artistic focus for the better part of 2020, when supermoons materialised three times in the spring and three times in the autumn – with April’s and October’s moons being the most spectacular.