Half Moon’s commitment to excellence extends beyond the gallery walls. Through a carefully managed drop shipping process, each reprint from our partnership with 1000Museums is produced to order and be delivered directly to your door. This ensures museum-quality precision, sustainable fulfillment, and a flawless experience from selection to arrival.
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Inspired by events observed through a seafarer’s watchful eye, Michael Lester (born Michał Leszczyński, 1906–1972) was a highly regarded artist and master mariner in interwar Poland. His passion for the sea and for art was upended by the devastating currents of World War II.
Finding himself without a homeland, Great Britain became Lester’s adopted country. In wartime Britain, he served with dedication in the Merchant Navy and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary while simultaneously establishing his artistic career. Searching for his own haven and fresh inspiration, he set sail for Jamaica in 1952, where he began anew. Influenced by the rhythmic, easy-going cadences amidst vibrant Caribbean colours, Lester developed an enduring style known for its bold strokes and flowing lines. Honouring a relationship founded in the 1960s, Half Moon is proud to continue what history interrupted, awakening the world to Lester, a master artist.
Half Moon has long been a meeting place of cultures, a landscape where lush tropical beauty intertwines with Jamaican art, music, and cuisine to create an ever-blooming spirit of inspiration. In its earliest years, the Polish-born and Montego Bay-based artist Michael Lester was commissioned to create artworks for the resort’s lobby, restaurants, and guest cottages, enriching the identity of what would become one of the Caribbean’s most iconic properties.
Lester witnessed Half Moon’s formative years and captured its evolution through menus, brochures, and architectural renderings. His watercolours, paintings, and mural-scale masterworks adorned the property, weaving his vision into the very fabric of its culture and place.
Having made Jamaica his home from 1953 until his passing in 1972, Lester left behind a legacy that endures in museums and private collections across the Caribbean, the United States, the United Kingdom, Poland, and beyond. For decades, discerning collectors have celebrated his contribution to Half Moon’s enduring grace and artistic heritage.
In 2022, the founding owners of Half Moon recognized an opportunity to continue the stewardship of a remarkable cultural legacy by acquiring the remaining estate of Michael Lester. Many of his treasured possessions, collected over a lifetime of exploration as a master mariner and artist, are contained within more than six hundred works now part of the Lester Estate Acquisition.
Together with the original commissions displayed across the resort, the Lester Collection at Half Moon now forms the largest and most comprehensive body of his work, encompassing the full span of his artistic career. These pieces are proudly exhibited throughout the property, enriching the resort’s cultural and historical landscape.
In a continuing commitment to preserve and share this heritage, Half Moon has partnered with Garlandstone Arts, LLC to restore, digitize, and manage the collection. Conservation initiatives are underway to ensure its future vitality and to honour a legacy of creativity, discovery, and enduring artistry.
