Two new underpaintings done this week. One is a surreal construction that's a bit similar to the "Strawberry" painting. A desert in folds, a vine, an arrow and a rose feature. The second is less visually impressive and based on a simple idea about losing creative ability and features a distraught figure in the desert facing a dandelion that has just lost its seeds. I've decided to enter the John Moore's biannual competition in Liverpool, although it was a difficult choice because I'm developing at a good pace and will be in a much better position to produce world class art in two years time.
My newest idea on art theory is something without a name at the moment. Whereas surrealism is expressive, designed to express the subconscious of the painter, this instead tries to trick or insert ideas into the subconscious of the viewer, by the use of visual clues (shapes, words...) that the subconscious mind alone will notice. The Kate Bush as a Winter Tree painting was one of my first examples of this. It was not surreal, not from my dreams or subconscious, but designed to have enough of a likeness there for the viewer's subconscious to see, but not conscious mind.
