A large percentage of Theodore Lukits' plein-air pastels are moonlights. Because he loved painting "mood" paintings, he was drawn to the enveloping cloak of night. Night obscures detail, reducing a painting to its most essential elements, and in these simple compositions, stripped of the extraneous, Lukits excelled. He often painted a single, elegantly drawn tree or rocky outcropping silhouetted against the light of a full moon. When compared to the Northern California Tonalists, Lukits' works are more dynamic, as he used the more chromatic palette of Impressionism for his nocturnes. It is his elegant yet simple compositions and his subtle use of color that creates a palpable sense of mood even his least complex works.

TNL 368,   Pastel on Paper,    9 1/2" x 9 1/2" "Spring Beauty" (circa 1924, Lukits Art Trust) TNL 369,   Pastel on Paper,    10" x 9" "Bathers" (circa 1924, Lukits Art Trust)   TNL 370,   Pastel on Paper,    1o" x 9 1/2" "Glowing Nudes" (circa 1924, Lukits Art Trust)