Beryx with Moon and Stars

Beryx with Moon and Stars depicts a deep-sea beryx (alfonsino) — a large-eyed, red-bodied fish of the open ocean — set against a night sky marked by a moon and scattered stars. The pairing of a single specimen with celestial elements suggests a flattened, emblematic composition rather than a naturalistic seascape, with the fish's silhouette read against a tonally graded ground. The mokuhanga technique allows for soft bokashi gradations in the water and sky, the absorbency of washi accepting the water-based pigment in flat, layered fields rather than the heavier, opaque registration of oil-based relief printing. Hand-burnishing with the baren tends to yield even, matte colour areas suited to this kind of silhouetted natural subject. The print belongs to the body of work Lane produced within Graphic Studio Dublin's 60th-anniversary mokuhanga cycle of 2020–21, her first sustained engagement with Japanese water-based woodblock after more than four decades of oil-based woodblock practice, and shares with other prints from that cycle a focus on isolated natural motifs handled in restrained, near-decorative arrangements.