Hunter’s Moon #4

I caught the Hunter's Moon just as it cleared the horizon at Bako National Park in Sarawak, absolutely massive against the ridgeline. The sky grows darker radiating outward from the central moon – deep indigo at the edges, lighter grey-blue closer to the moon. The silhouetted trees along the ridge had that distinctive tropical profile, their twisted forms recognisable even in shadow. With watercolour, I worked in washes to build those gradations, keeping the moon pale cream with just a hint of its surface features visible. There's something about a moonrise that feels different from a moonset – it commands attention, demands you stop and watch. The massive scale of it when it's low on the horizon always shocks me, even though I know it's an optical illusion. After all these years away, coming back to paint Malaysian landscapes connects me to where my journey began.