Dream

An expressionist semi-abstract portrait of a sleeping woman, Dream is an exploration of the two realities we inhabit, in our waking life and in dream, in which our conscious minds melt away and we enter a state that is vivid and yet formless, tangible and yet abstract, as if entering another dimension. We carry this subconscious narrative into our waking lives, like a distant memory. Created using a combination of abstract, loose, freestyle painting with water and drip technique to create the figure asleep on a couch, inspired by a dream of a woman in a green dress, followed by more detailed and impressionist style painting adding detail that shows a mountainscape horizon line inspired by the undulating foothills of the Karoo, which double up as abstract thought patterns flowing like universal energy. This is just one of the hidden symbols in the painting. This work can be categorized as process art, figurative painting, abstract expressionism and surrealistic portraiture with a touch of magical realism and Jungian psychology, with Dream also being a mythological archetype. Color palette is bold, bright and uses primary colors and metallic gold and copper paint to create a loose and layered textured effect that retains translucence and light through the use of water and glazes. Just like Jung believed that dreams are a way for the unconscious mind to communicate with the conscious mind, so here the immersion of the artist into a free-flow state, allowing randomness and spontaneity to control the process before editing, allows the artist to tap into a deeper, untapped state of consciousness. The painting is on stretched canvas, ready to hang.