How do you paint the night?

As my show in Vancouver is less than a month away it’s time to get in high gear. I was up this morning at about 2:00 am finishing this piece off. This is the first “nocturne” or night painting I’ve tried. How does one paint darkness? An interesting problem. I found I needed some bits of bright light (the freighter and the city behind) to counter the huge almost oppressive darkness. Room for improvement, but for a first try I think it turned out pretty well. The scene is a view of Stanley Park and the First Narrows from West Vancouver at about 4 in the morning.