“It’s a gallery I’ve always visited regularly, first as an art student, and then as a professional painter, and I know, love and admire so many of the portraits there,” 42-year-old Moon told the Bay of Plenty Times.
It was a “real privilege” to enter the gallery’s primary collection with a portrait of “someone I admire and respect so much”, she said.
“This is one of the most significant collections of portraiture in the world and is seen by millions of visitors a year.”
Moon has lived in London since 2007 and lives and works between there and Sussex. Originally from Stokes Valley near Wellington, she recently spent a year living and painting in Ōhiwa in the Bay of Plenty, where she grew up holidaying. She frequently visits her mother, who lives in Whakatāne.
The inspiration behind the painting
Moon painted the oil-on-linen 150x100cm portrait between 2020 and 2021. Tatchell’s rainbow tie signals his LGBTQIA+ activism.
“My paintings tend to evolve slowly over time in short, energetic bursts as I am usually juggling half a dozen large paintings at once.”
Moon said she respected Tatchell’s dedication and commitment to equality.
Artist Sarah Jane Moon with her painting at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
“He has always sought to make our world fairer for all people, including those from the LGBTQIA+ community like myself as well as asylum seekers and refugees.
“He has selflessly campaigned across a range of issues including hate crime, apartheid, nuclear weapons, environmental degradation and the death penalty for nearly six decades.”
Finding her way back to painting
Moon was always interested in art as a child and teenager but pursued Japanese, English literature and art history at university.
“[I] didn’t really find my way back to painting until later in my 20s.”
She took a short painting course one summer in London and realised she wanted to pursue painting fulltime.
“It was the thing that had been missing since my teens.”
Soon after that “lightbulb moment”, Moon enrolled in a two-year, full-time course in portrait painting at The Heatherley School of Fine Art in Chelsea.
“On leaving the school, I went straight into trying to make a living as a fulltime professional painter, which is not easy somewhere as competitive as London.”
Artist Sarah Jane Moon has lived in London since 2007.
She teaches contemporary figurative painting once a week at The Heatherley School of Fine Art during term and also offered the occasional masterclass in portraiture – both for adults.
Asked how opportunities compared in the UK to New Zealand, Moon said she had created work and tried to exhibit and build connections in the art world in New Zealand.
“Although I have been selected for the Molly Morpeth Exhibition in Whakatāne and the Adam Portraiture Award at the NZ Portrait Gallery a few times, I’ve found exhibiting opportunities harder to come by.”
Moon said figurative art has had a “resurgence” in the UK, Europe, and the United States in the past decade.
“That, combined with robust art markets and cultures of commissioning and collecting work, does lead to more opportunities.”
A National Portrait Gallery media release on August 1 said it was the first painted portrait of Tatchell – and the first by Moon – to enter the gallery’s collection.
The “never-before-seen” portrait was painted to coincide with Tatchell’s 70th birthday on January 25, 2022.
