Noctuelles (Nigh Moths), oil on linen painting by Cerulean Arts Collective Member Jeff Thomsen.  Included in his solo exhibition January 15 - February 9, 2025.  Size:  24" H x 30" W; Frame: 25.25" H x 31.25" W 

This painting is one in series of five paintings based on the five-movement piano suite Miroirs by Maurice Ravel.

Ravel typically began each movement with a main statement, followed by a contrasting middle section, before returning to the original statement. Noctuelles (Night Moths) starts with an immediacy suggesting the delicate flight of moths, followed by a pensive, perhaps melancholic middle section, before the moths resume their quiet flight. Ravel was inspired by a fragment of poetry written by one of his friends depicting moths flitting about and settling upon a railway trestle or beam. However, the music does not con jure for me such a scene. Rather, the playful immediacy by which the movement begins and ends, with its slower, more inward interlude, led me to imagine a fragment of nature by moonlit water, undisturbed by human presence, where moths are free to move and feed upon the vegetation.                                                                                                       Jeff Thomsen


Note: Painting will be available for pickup or shipment after the end of exhibition.

To view additional work by Jeff, visit his webpage: