I had a very visual dream last night. I was walking in snow as a Victorian with a lady by my side. A criminal was nearby who I hated and I became obsessed with capturing him and torturing him, inventing new and more extreme tortures each time my plans failed. The floor and sky was white with subtle greys and pastel shades, not unlike the painting I was working on yesterday. I left my body and observed the scene as a dream. I decided to run away from the whole dream and began to push, the floor, people and objects slid away from me and at some point I reached out in front of me and grabbed the sky, tearing it apart to reveal a new scene behind. I felt that I'd seen what I saw before, it was a giant coil made of yellow rock with a red sky, clad in lava and fire. It was a bit like a giant cochlea. I flew down its inside corridors then realised that I might imminently flip backwards and spiral down the pit at the centre, this was a vision of hell. Before the vortex grabbed me I realised what I had to do. I leaped away back to the white snow scene and hugged the criminal in forgiveness.
When I awoke I had the idea to paint this and saw quite clearly a picture and had the title "When You're in Heaven You'll Wonder Where I Am". The top right was the white scene, with tiny black figures looking for me. Giant angels were peering over the rim of the scene like hawks peering into a frozen lake. One had "LUCIFER" written along the wing, this was a spy not the devil. A line led from that angel to a smaller red hole where the tiny "me" figure was trapped. The whole image was fantastical. I'm not sure if I should paint this, but that image was already a painting so all I need to do is copy that.
Now to waking news! I've delivered five paintings to Jobling Gowler this morning and look forward to attending the opening evening on the 20th. Katharine Cartwright's discussion about the definition of art has made me write too. I'll publish that when it's finished. My immediate task is to varnish a few of last year's paintings this afternoon.
