I painted every full moon of 2024

Here they are!

Dear Friend,

As the year turned last January, in the thinness of the winter light, I decided to paint every full moon of 2024.

At the time, there seemed to be a lot of flux in my life, and I wanted to connect with a rhythm that was larger than myself. The moon has been waxing and waning for millennia. It has guided and comforted people for generations.

Watching the phases of the moon helped me to connect to something bigger than the small bubble I sometimes felt trapped in. It reminded me of the ancient rhythms of the world, instead of the artificial flatness that our digital existence creates.

There are so many cycles and rhythms around us, big and small, and it is so easy to forget them. Day and Night. The seasons. The water cycle.

We are made up of approximately 50-60% water, and the moon has a profound pull on the water around us. The tides ebb and flow in the oceans. Our energy ebbs and flows. And I wonder how much the two are connected? (From the Bay of Fundy, which has the highest tides, to the Mediterranean or Baltic Seas with the lowest tides).

One advantage of watching the moon is that it can be seen from anywhere on earth, so the challenge to paint it each month didn’t depend on me being in a certain location. I could be anywhere.

I grew up loving the sky and its cycles and permutations. When you live on the prairie, a landscape painting is often the horizontal line of the horizon, and the sky above it. The dynamic energy in the painting comes from the sky, not the land.

The moon was also something I could engage with repeatedly and sequentially. A monthly painting seemed like something I could accomplish without overwhelm.

So, I set out to paint the moon, and how the moon makes me feel each month. Based on the weather each month, I also gave myself the day on either side of the official full moon to paint it, just in case there was thick cloud cover.

I hope you enjoy the series!

If you connect with this series, please share it!

Without further ado… here they are….

May the moon shine softly on you as you sleep,

X

Jane

P.S. This is a long email, so if it gets cut off in your email provider, please click “View entire message.” You don’t want to miss all of the moons!

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January

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February

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March

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April

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May

The full moon followed me to the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.

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June

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July

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August

The moon was red in Canada due to the dreadful forest fires.

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September

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October

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November

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December