Rêve

Rêve 

 (gold leaf, detail)

"Reverie is the groundwork of creative imagination; it is the privilege of the artist that with him it is not as with other men an escape from reality, but the means by which he accedes to it." - W. Somerset Maugham.

Circles. Spots. Dots. Lately I've been seeing spots before my eyes. They have appeared all over my newest works like a rash during the lockdown. My interest in using them in my work stemmed initially from my visit to Vienna and reacquainting myself with Max Ernst's painting, Le Silence à travers les âges, 1968, held in the Albertina museum. This painting is from a series of later works in which Ernst focused on life forces found in nature, cosmic imagery, the infinity of space and the possibilities of parallel worlds. It appears to be a deceptively simple little painting, but its magic always enchants and transfixes me whenever I see it. It's the fullness and fecundity of that golden, yellow moon, and the concentric spirals of dots punctuating its surface. They are so suggestive of the rotation of its movement as it travels through its orbit. Just as scientists last week have been speculating about the presence of extraterrestrial life forms in a gas found in the clouds of the planet Venus, the attached fern collaged to the painting also suggests the possibilities of life on Ernst's remote planet.

Max Ernst - Le Silence à travers les âges, 1968

The theme of circles and dots was reinforced later, after having visited MAK I crossed the road and whilst wandering around in circles in Vienna's Stadtpark directly opposite, I spotted these little circular paving stones on my stroll. I loved the patterns they formed. They resembled those Ishihara test charts for colour blindness seen in optician's surgeries. The spots, spotted, were clearly a sign.

Roy Lichtenstein - Mirror, 1972

I looked further into the works of Ernst and Surrealist symbolism rooted in dreams, the occult and the subconscious. Their use of the mirror motif as a symbol for looking into other realities and consciousnesses was particularly resonant and appealing. I adopted this Surrealist theme, and the surrealist humour in Roy Lichtenstein's idea of a looking glass that reflects nothing back at you from his Mirror series as the basis for the creation of these new elegant pieces entitled Rêve. As the title suggests these new Rêve artworks are meant to evoke a sense of calm and a dreamlike state in the viewer. A contemplative reverie. The contrast of the reflective gold/silver leaf spotted frame with the matt of the white butterflies creates a certain tension, hopefully not unlike that threshold of awareness of the spiritual and physical that the Surrealists were trying to capture. For all enquiries pertaining to these new Rêve pieces, please contact myself directly, Cambridge Contemporary Art, or the Rowley Gallery. Many more circle, spot and dot works (including two absolute beauties) to be revealed in due course.

 Rêve, (gold leaf)

  Rêve, (silver leaf)

  Rêve, (silver leaf, detail)

20/20 Vision