Bedroom at Dawn

Times of the year when daylight gets rapidly longer or shorter (late March and April, October) tend to bring out vivid dreams or nightmares for me. I wake at dawn. I’m exploring that in-between moment when the dream is still fresh and you’re not sure where you are. The wood of suicides from Dante’s Inferno features in the middle in the door area and various personal memories surround it. Limited palette of ultramarine blue, raw umber and bluish silver. I painted it in casein and it gives a unique look.

Dreamscape: The House On The Edge Of The Cliff

Dreamscape The House On The Edge Of The Cliff

My home stands a mere 160 metres from the eastern side of Garryvoe Beach.  Eight to ten foot high clay cliffs are constantly eroded by wave action; each year between a foot and a metre of ground are washed into the sea.  About once or twice a year I get a recurring dream where the cliff has suddenly come up to the house just outside the fence.  Like a lot of anxiety themed dreams, just before the house falls down, the dream ends.  Skies are always dark in my bad dreams where landscapes feature.  The painting looks real to match how vivid the dream feels but if you look at where the windows should be in the house, the background sky is visible instead of walls.  Therefore the house is a façade and imagined. The painting is also a prophecy, it’s only a matter of time before the cliffs do come up to the house, depending on how bad global warming kicks in.