This painting is part of The Nobles of the Inner Sea, Mahshid Moochani’s 2026 collection of thirteen oil-on-canvas paintings. Read the collection essay — Why the Sea in Mahshid Moochani’s New Collection Isn’t a Place — or visit Mahshid Moochani’s full artist profile.
Before the sun existed, the colors had to borrow warmth from one another. The woman placed a single ember inside the wide mouth of her tuba and asked the sea creature to lift it above the water. Every golden fish gave the ember one scale as a gift. When the sky finally touched the finished sphere, it learned how to shine without ever burning what it loved.
Medium: Oil on canvas
Year: 2026
Dimensions: 60 × 60 cm
More from The Nobles of the Inner Sea:
- The Nobles of the Inner Sea — $18,000
- The Sail of the Self — $14,000
- The Rhythm of Being — $16,000
- A Civilization in the Depths of Silence — $16,000
- The Invisible Architecture of Nobility — $10,000
- A Polyphonic Unity — $10,000
- The Hidden Order of the Waves — $7,000
- The Silent Music of the Deep — $7,000
- Hidden Geometry — $7,000
- A Gliding Mind — $4,000
- The Elephant’s Angel — $4,000
- A Shoreless Breath — $4,000
