My Favourite Sleepy Paintings I Created This Year
This year, I returned to the sleepy dark blues of the night.
Not the dramatic kind, but the quiet hours when everything softens, when colour deepens and slowly turns to black.
I've always succumb to the fact that I am a bit of a slow painter. I like artworks to take their shape naturally and that often means going with the flow with timings. They are the works I think of as sleepy paintings. Not because they depict sleep, but because they ask for it.
Why I’m drawn to night scenes
Night and dark draws me in.
In darkness, detail becomes suggestion. Everything gets blurred and you have to squint to understand shapes. Everything is a gesture to something else.
This ambiguity is what I love most.
Historical night paintings I return to
My adoration for still night scenes came from my pursuit into archives searching for inspiration. Searching through old photographs, 1800s paintings and illustrations felt endless and exciting.
One of my long-standing companions is Sydney Laurence’s Northern Lights (1925). There is something profoundly still in his nocturnes, the way the sky seems vibrant and alive.
I also think often of Thomas Cole’s Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (1828). Its darkness holds weight.
And then there is Hermann Ottomar Herzog’s Mining Town by Moonlight (1869). A work I love for its delicate glowing moon lighting up the scene.
A favourite illustration that deeply inspired one of my own paintings below is Kawase Hasui's Rain at Omiya (1930).
These works remind me that the key to night is deep atmosphere.
You can deep dive and learn more about art history here (https://amzn.to/3KWIm0M).
My own night paintings this year
The paintings I’ve chosen here all share a similar quality: dark hues, softened edges, and a sense of pause. Landscapes where you quietly get lost inside.
I wasn’t interested in stars that sparkle or moons that dominate. I wanted paths barely visible, light that feels distant, and darkness that is kind not eery.
I created these on canvas with acrylic base and oils. Some are still available to collect!
They are paintings for people who like to sit with things a little longer...
