Fresh Paint
LEFT Sarah Jane
Moon, Krishna
Istha, oil on
c anv a s ,1 22 x 97c mSarah Jane Moon
For Sarah Jane Moon’s latest body of work, the New
Zealand-born portrait artist has painted writers, lawyers,
artists, doctors and more. The unifying factor is that each
of her subjects identifies as LGBTQI+ or queer, and each
is committed to living authentically while forging ahead
in their chosen industries.
The Heatherley School of Fine Art tutor’s latest sitter
was Krishna Istha, the performer, live artist and theatre
maker who she met through the wider queer community.
“Both Krishna and I try, through our work in the creative
arts, to actively promote visibility and representation of
under-represented people, of people like us,” she says.
“We’re from elsewhere but have fallen in love with London
and its diversity and opportunities.”
Gender presentation is important to Sarah Jane and
so she encourages her sitters to wear what they want
and have plenty of input into the portrait. She works with
a limited palette of warm and cool primaries, plus white,
yet teases out a range of bright, eye-catching colour
combinations. “The background in this case is totally
invented,” she explains. “Pink seemed fitting because of
the amount of green in Krishna’s outfit and also because
it is quite a gendered colour but also playful.”
Surprisingly, Sarah Jane only requires a single sitting for
each new portrait, during which time she avoids getting her
brushes out. Instead, she takes several hundred photos
not as direct source material, but rather as a “jumping off
point” for a painting. “I appreciate the way working from
a photograph distances a painter from the sitter and
provides less naturalistic detail, meaning that you have
something truer to the idea of a person and more graphic.”
Krishna Istha will be included in Sarah Jane’s
forthcoming Queer Portraits exhibition, which will also
feature her painting of the A&E doctor Dr Ronx that was
chosen for this year’s BP Portrait Award and used in the
promotional material across London. It was an important
step in this body of work, and the wider community from
which it was drawn, being recognised. “I can’t tell you what
a thrill it is to have a painting that means so much to both
of us blown up large and posted all over the city,” she says.
“It’s profound. Visibility is really important to us both.”
Sarah Jane’s exhibition is a timely reminder of the power
of great portraiture and the genre’s ability to be about far
much more than just capturing an accurate likeness.
Sarah Jane Moon: Queer Portraits runs 2-14 November at
The Gallery, Downstairs at The Department Store, London SW9.
http://www.sarahjanemoon.com
Artists & Illustrators 19