Shivering Sun

The brief for this commission was simply "one of your abstract cloudscapes in blues and greens" with the provisional title Cloud Watching on Neptune, so Shivering Sun started off as a pure abstract based on a photo I had stashed away promoting New Zealand tourism. The sweeping clouds became more and more apparent as I worked the canvas, and seemed in need of a surface to reflect in, so the abstract became an alien landscape. The moon and stars were added late to resolve the piece fully as a landscape rather than a full abstract.

It was briefly entitled The Red Flower of Tachai Blooms Everywhere, as the Steve Hackett piece of the same name inspired the red vegetation in the foreground, growing in an unlikely location, but I didn't want to attach any meaning to that so went with Shivering Sun instead.