Aarschot
oil on canvas 80 x 140cm
In this large work in sepia tones, a little like an old photograph, he brings together important monuments of Aarschot. That Edward Moons loved Aarschot is beyond doubt. This did not stop him from looking critically at what was happening and from grumbling about what he did not like.
Large natural stone blocks at Renier in Aarschot
oil on canvas 94 x 179 cm
“Working in an office brings stress from time to time. That was and is no different at NV Renier natuursteen. Making many quotes and, fortunately, noting many orders too is pleasant, but finishing the natural stone according to the order and respecting the agreed delivery time often brings a lot of tension.
It helped me enormously to have many works of art around me in our office, all spread over all the offices, corridors and showrooms. Every work of art calls for reflection, thought and interpretation. That gave me, and hopefully all our employees too, peace. It also drew the attention of our visitors, something unexpected. Art stands in sharp contrast to everyday reality and that is exactly what matters to me. Art has the power to put someone on a different footing.
Art does not necessarily have to be ‘beautiful’. But every work must appeal to the viewer, touch them. There must be a story behind it. The soul of the artist must be perceptible.
For me it was also important to know the artist personally. I made it a point of honour to choose Aarschot artists in particular.
That is how Warre Moons came into the picture. From his studio Warre had a view of our stock of natural stone blocks. The stacking of this heavy material, still in rough block form as quarried, inspired Warre. He painted several works on this subject. They did not become still lifes of blocks, not little landscape scenes, but a very personal interpretation and vision of it. And that corresponds perfectly with its purpose: to make the viewer (and especially me) think, to wrong-foot them.
The aquamarine and turquoise colours fascinated me. They brought nature even closer to the stacked blocks.
Thank you Warre! The painting fits perfectly in our office and certainly fulfils its purpose of bringing calm from time to time.” – Ir François Renier
Meetshoven, 2012a 57 ha nature reserve in Aarschot
oil on canvas 60 x 50 cm
oil on canvas
oil on canvas 99 x 120 cm
oil on canvas 79 x 89 cm
Sailing boat, 1971
oil on canvas 58.5 x 38.5 cm
Euphoria, on the occasion of the birth of Griet.
oil on canvas 69.5 x 60 cm
video maker: Rik Terlyn, Kunstkoppen is a project of CC Het Gasthuis and IGCS. Narrated by Griet Moons, Edward’s daughter.
“Dad was unique. The couple that mum and dad were was also unique.” – Griet Moons
“He lived for art and he had the art of living. I know nobody who had such a passion for art and everything connected with it.” – Lief Moons Holemans
Just after his marriage to Lief, Edward made this still life at the academy. It became his first work in their living room, 1970
oil on canvas 53 x 72 cm
Still life
oil on canvas 78 x 69.5 cm
Still life
oil on canvas 78 x 69.5 cm
Céline Moons Schellens (1905-1998), Edward’s mother
oil on canvas
Edward’s father was called Gaston Moons. He was stationmaster in Aarschot. Céline was a housewife and a golden person. The couple lived on the Gijmelsesteenweg and had six children.
Abstract painting
oil on canvas 80 x 89 cm
“Edward Moons is completely himself. A man who, although cheerful by nature, is always inclined towards dramatic situations, but always knows how to give them an outlet of hope. Perhaps this is the purest symbolism of the cor irrequietum, of the human heart that is restless, for the good, the beautiful, the true.” – Clem De Ridder Flemish composer and writer
Abstract painting
oil on canvas 70 x 50 cm
Abstract painting
oil on canvas 78.5 x 89 cm
Abstract painting
oil on canvas
“Io considero il quadro uno sguardo veloce sulla realtà. Una lampadina che si accende e poi si spegne.” – Pietro Lista
Abstract painting
oil on canvas 54.5 x 75 cm (1976)
oil on canvas 99 x 130 cm
oil on canvas 79.5 x 90 cm
Abstract painting
oil on canvas
“… With a tangle of thin lines he lays colour on the canvas with quick, accurate touches. Thinly spread or in thick brushstrokes, infinitely rich in rust-brown, often dark tones. Oil paint lends itself in such varied ways to broadly covering layers, the brushstroke like watercolour, very strongly diluted in fine layers, caressingly soft, spread out. Barely any colour, almost transparent. Thus faces sometimes almost disappear into the dark background. As if the person modestly almost disappears into the surroundings.” – Josée Lehon art historian
Father Damien, 2014
oil on canvas 70 x 60 cm
oil on canvas 50 x 64 cm
Self-portrait
oil on canvas
untitled
oil on canvas 99 x 80 cm
Setting sun and bushes, 2012
oil on canvas 50 x 60 cm
Lagoon – Cabanas in Portugal, 2012
oil on canvas 70 x 60 cm
Lagoon, Cabanas, 2014
oil on canvas 70 x 60 cm
Edward Moons and his wife Lief Holemans got to know the Portuguese Cabanas through friends around 1980. They saw the old, simple fishing village evolve but the place never lost its authenticity. The couple remained faithful to the holiday resort. For Edward Moons the ideal landscape par excellence. Or sea view, of course. In more than 800 watercolours he captured the unique place. Each work is built up with the precision of the miniaturist. The view, over land or sea, set in planes, so that each work, however small, shows us infinite depth in clear tones. Deep blue with a multitude of fine nuances. Besides a good eye, watercolour demands great expertise. Here again Moons shows himself a master of this difficult discipline.
Lagoon, Cabanas, 2017
oil on canvas 60 x 60 cm
Lagoon, Cabanas, 1991
oil on canvas 150 x 100 cm
Space figures, 1988Almost identical, they move between planets, fleeing to another world in our solar system.
Everything takes place in colourful, transparent colours. Harsh, pessimistic subjects, but with the light of hope in every image.
oil on canvas 65 x 65 cm
Space figures – conquerors
oil on canvas 70 x 60 cm
Space figures – sense of security,1990
oil on canvas 70 x 60 cm
Space figures, 1991
oil on panel 70 x 60 cm
“He sees people as atoms, dust pressed between lines. Lines full of pain in a world full of pain. Little people, without volume, almost identical, as when you look from a distance at the teeming mass on earth. Ward takes no account of anatomy, draws only contour lines and fills them with colour. His people, his landscapes, his forms are finished and also not finished. They are part of a continuous process of movement. They are life itself. Moons wants to give form to this world and that other world. Ward Moons’ theme is harsh and at first seems pessimistic, but if you keep looking you see the light in every image, hope perhaps?” – Ina Stabergh author, city poet of Diest
Three brothers, 1999
oil on canvas
Three brothers have a photograph taken in the year 1913. The driver Jozef Moons fell at Ramskapelle in 1914. Joseph Moons, son of Petrus Moons and Florentina Mertens. Born on 14 July 1893. “Fallen on the field of honour at Nieuwpoort on 23 October 1914. Funeral service in the Church of Our Lady in Aarschot on Monday 10 November 1919.”
“Egged on by French-speaking officers to enlist as a volunteer. Almost no training and sent immediately to the front, to fall very quickly there at the very beginning of the war, for… the fatherland. Every year Lief and I go to visit Ramskapelle (a must for me). The man in the middle of the little car is Joseph and at the back my father Gaston (Joseph’s brother).” – Edward Moons
Two friends, 2013
oil on canvas 60 x 70 cm
Undergrowth, 2017
oil on canvas 70 x 60 cm
“Painting is waging a constant battle with the surrounding world, with oneself and with matter. May this battle never be won, may the challenges remain, so that the spiritual ascent can remain constant in your studio, your only familiar world.” – Paul de Keulenaar teacher at Atheneum Aarschot and lecturer at the European School Brussels
Setting sun, 2017
oil on canvas 70 x 60 cm
Landscape, 1975
oil on canvas 100 x 150 cm
“Moons has an exceptional palette which he knows how to use in an artistically responsible way. With seemingly very simple technical means he obtains colourful works that are in fact a hushed essence and from which at the same time a restrained expression shines.” – Maurice Haccuria painter, sculptor and graphic artist
Iceland mountains, 2017
oil on canvas 90 x 80 cm
Iceland, 2017
oil on canvas 90 x 80 cm
Iceland, 2017
oil on canvas 80 x 90 cm
Iceland, 2018
oil on canvas 50 x 40 cm
Iceland, 2018
oil on canvas 60 x 70 cm
Undergrowth, 2012
oil on canvas 60 x 50 cm
Rising sun, 2018
oil on canvas 70 x 50 cm
Distant horizon, 2017
oil on canvas 70 x 60 cm
“Edward Moons was a sensitive man. He sometimes tended towards gloom. That expressed itself in dark, let us say sombre works. Then they alternated again with fresh, colourful, figurative paintings. Moons could capture landscapes, buildings and portraits like no other.” – Jan Van der Borght art collector
“Fishing village in a southern landscape, depicted in suggestive colours. A poetic world that makes you think (if only I were there).” – Edward Moons
oil on canvas
African woman with childA loving scene set in a harsh world and yet fully in the eternal light.
oil on canvas
There are quite a few self-portraits by Edward Moons. He painted himself from the front and in profile, with various facial expressions, plain, cheerful or serious. It should be clear that he did not do so out of vanity. The subject lent itself well to exploring painting itself. The curls of his beard, his thinning hair, the expression of the eyes.
portrait through the lens of photographer Berten
studies:
Teacher training college, higher art education, monumental arts, painting
Some of his solo exhibitions in Belgium:
Saint Roch Chapel in Aarschot (Stations of the Cross)
the abbey church at Averbode (Stations of the Cross)
Brussels: gallery ‘Astoria’ in Sint-Jacob-op-den-Coudenberg, Cultural Centre Neder-Over-Heembeek
From his solo exhibitions abroad:
Lüdenscheid (Germany): gallery ‘S’ Rathaus
Lüdenscheid: Pauluskirche (Stations of the Cross)
Vevey (Switzerland): gallery ‘Capricorne’
Tavira (Portugal): galerie di arte
Work represented at touring exhibitions:
Theme: Landscape – selected in an international company at the “Cultural Centre of Brussels”
Teacher at the Municipal Academy of Fine Arts in Aarschot.
Presenter and compiler of the ‘Kunstbabbel’: In 1989 the painter Edward ‘Warre’ Moons started the Aarschotse Kunstbabbel. Over all those years he received several hundred, often striking figures from the world of art, music, sport, politics, etc… .
Edward Moons received the Toetenel Prize three times in Brussels and won the Bob Courtens Prize in Antwerp.
Edward Moons received the Prize of the Aarschot Cultural Council in 2001.
Poster on the occasion of an exhibition in the shop windows of Aarschot in 2019.
With thanks to André Matthijssens, photographer