In 2019 I received a commission from Joanna Bird to create an artwork that represented space in some way for NASA, to be exhibited and auctioned at the 50th anniversary celebrations for the 1969 Apollo moon landing, at Kennedy Space Centre.

For this I created ‘Saturn Bowl’. The 5 colours in Saturn were derived from an image of Saturn seen through an infrared lens, showing colours the naked eye cannot see. Different colours indicate the layers and varying densities of cloud and haze, while the vibration of the narrow lines refer to the constantly moving small particles which make up the planets rings.

I have since developed this into a large collection, maintaining the colourway but varying the surface arrangement. Within the collection only 5 colours are used but 9 or more colours are visible. This is due to a phenomenon known as simultaneous contrast, where the eye sees different colours depending on the neighbouring hue. One of the strongest colour illusions is that of red juxtaposed with dark blue; the red is altered so much it appears as a bright fuschia pink.