Tag: art

What Dreams Of The Sea Prognosticate (Mixed media, approx. 80 x 40cm.)

I find dream analysis hilarious. 

I find the sea very beautiful, though. 

“To dream of hearing the lonely sighing of the sea, foretells that you will be fated to spend a weary and unfruitful life devoid of love and comradeship. Dreams of the sea prognosticate unfulfilled anticipations, while pleasures of a material form are enjoyed, there is an inward craving for pleasure that flesh cannot requite. For a young woman to dream that she glides swiftly over the sea with her lover, there will come to her sweet fruition of maidenly hopes, and joy will stand guard at the door of the consummation of changeless vows.” – Gustavus Hindman Miller, 1901. 

More dream interpretations here.

Naif  (Mixed media)

Come to think of it, I’ve done a few in this vein. 

This was an oil painting, but I don’t have a decent photograph of it in its original state. 

This one… well, the kid who modelled is naturally thin but he looks positively emaciated in this painting. I have to take responsibility for that, for exaggerating the tones and manipulating the topography. I just like the way strong light plays on the contours of the human figure and there are generally more interesting shadows to be cast by bones slithering around just under the skin. I know some people find this kind of thing disturbing, and I’d think it most unfortunate if this upsets anyone. It’s never about glamourising thinness, or promoting an ideal of beauty. I’m not interested in social commentary. I do think thin figures communicate a sense of longing, of deficiency – a bony figure in an awkward pose just somehow broadcasts need. See Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Mikhail Vrubel, Harry Clarke, El Greco and Blue Picasso for precedents. So I wasn’t aiming for much more with this painting than a little emotional resonance and a slightly uncomfortable atmosphere. 

Originally 4 feet by 2 feet, oil & mixed media on board. The skin was acid green and I unexpectedly pioneered a possibly groundbreaking texturing technique when a cloud of mayflies got embedded in the surface when I took the piece outside to varnish it. What you see here is the edited version, manipulated in Photoshop CS2.

Mural in progress. 

I decided to get out of the studio and begin a painting on a wall in a disused underground carpark. Progress is slow. This is partly because I find it tricky to get proportions right on a larger scale. But mainly it is because it is very dark and immensely creepy down there, three or four levels down, and I keep scaring the bejeezus out of myself. There are many strange sounds and unsettling signs of human presence – smashed lighting and used condoms, mainly, which just raises so many bewildering questions I don’t want to know the answer to. And I’m conscious of how vulnerable I am to attack by winos, or zombies. Or raptors.

I realise these are mostly irrational fears, so I try to keep working and not flinch at every noise. But then yesterday three or four men actually did come thundering down the pedestrian stairwell and I instinctively turned off my torch and hid behind a pillar. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, partly because of the cavernous echo, partly because I was standing near a noisy vent, and partly because I was having a goddamn heart attack. 

Anyway, they didn’t notice me and left and no one got attacked. Unless they got eaten by something on their way out. But I’m taking a day off today.