Astronaut in the night

The painting *Astronaut in the Night* depicts a solitary figure in a white space suit standing in the centre of a grey, crater-strewn surface. Behind him stretches a pitch-black sky in which a single bright light source shines like a star, casting long rays around it. His visor catches that light in a warm golden reflection.

What makes this image so powerful is the emptiness surrounding it. There is nothing but dust, craters and a single footprint that reveals he has walked here. His shadow falls sharply and elongated to the right across the ground, emphasised by the harsh light with no atmosphere to soften it. In the bottom left-hand corner, a small part of the lunar module is just visible, with gold-coloured foil that glows against the grey. Everything beyond that is silence.

The cool shades of grey combined with that bright white give the work a sleek and striking appearance. In a study, a modern hall or above a desk, it does exactly what you’d want it to.

Anyone fascinated by space travel, the first moon landings or simply images of utter solitude will find something here to gaze at for a long time. One person, and no one else for hundreds of thousands of kilometres.