A portrait by former Eastern Bay artist, Sarah Jane Moon, has been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Moon, who has family in Whakatāne, and spent a year in the Eastern Bay during Covid, but now lives in London, said the large-scale portrait was of Australian-born campaigner Peter Tatchell.

Moon said she was unaware of any other New Zealand artists represented in this collection and so was pleased to have such a significant and large-scale painting included.

Made in tribute and admiration for Tatchell’s human rights activism, the painting is one of several such portraits Moon has made of her LGBTQ+ heroes.

“It has been a real honour to paint Peter and convey something of the respect and admiration I have for his lifelong commitment to LGBTQ+ rights and his wider environmental and human rights work,” said Moon. “I am very conscious that it is because of his unwavering commitment to equality that I and many other younger LGBTQ+ people enjoy greater freedoms and I am constantly inspired by his focus and selflessness.”

Moon lives and works in London and Sussex and explores issues relating to queer identity and the performance of gender in her work, which often depicts people and symbolic objects in vibrant colour.

Her use of heavy impasto, saturated colour and gestural mark making is energetic and distinctive.

She has exhibited widely, including at the National Portrait Gallery’s Portrait Award in 2019 and 2020, but the artist’s portrait of Peter Tatchell is the first to become part of the Gallery’s Collection.