Dark Days, Bright Nights

Being at the forefront of his technique, Richard Rowan’s artworks are detailed with his characteristic photographic realism, illustrating the power of nature.

Rowan brings us a new instalment to his Infinite collection, with the addition of two monochromatic limited-edition prints. Inspired by Icelandic landscapes and the beauty of the Scottish Highlands, the artist wanted to work on a project focused on capturing his surroundings and memories of the places he’s seen the milk way. By combining his environment with the milky way, the artist reminds us to find awe in the world we live in and the night sky. Given the difficulty of creating a glass painting with a reduced palette as opposed to with vivid aurora colours, the artist wanted to experiment in portraying the beauty of the sky in just two monochromatic tones. Testing his skills, specially shading, was the hardest part of the process, but the artist created a really atmospheric painting with monochrome shading.

“Dark Days, Bright Nights” is a beautiful, striking limited edition print of based on a landscape in Iceland. Not only is this piece special technically, given the combination of the night sky, the waterfall and the Milky Way painted with minimal colour, but also given the memories the artist has in Iceland. The detail and precision of the brush strokes are astonishing, elevating the level of realism. Rowan painted this piece while listening to “The Way Of Water” by Solstice Beats.

The John F Kennedy’s Rice University speech was memorable to the artist as Rowan was inspired to test himself with a reduced colour palette “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone.”

You can also purchase this piece in a set alongside "Our Magical Land".

Find out more about the previous instalments in the infinite collection or alternativity shop Rowan’s art.