Artist : Jon Molvig (Australia, b.1923, d.1970) Title : Date : 1958 Medium Description: synthetic polymer paint and oil on hardboard Dimensions : Credit Line : Purchased 1961 Image Credit Line : Accession Number : OA4.1961

Here’s a good word for an insomniac. It’s a term for a piece of art, most often music, that evokes evening or night, or, alternatively, a dreamy, pensive mood.

I like it because it sounds musical. It sounds haunting. For me it conjures up purple twilights, glimmering stars and crickets chirping.

Artworks at top: Nocturne Landscape, Jon Molvig; Nocturne: Forest Spires, Tom Thomson; Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket, James Abbot McNeill Whistler; The Falling Rocket (detail)