The Woven World

This is probably as close to a 'Dali-Doodleism' fusion as I have accomplished... the melting figures and low-azimuth (the tilt of the ground towards the horizon) is classic Dali, a 'homage' if you will, but the random assortment of objects ... the stop sign, the alien eye-ball beast on the right, and the prolific weave pattern are all elements of a doodleism style. Both styles, Dali, and Doodleism are basically the same thing... surrealism, which is defined by an imaginary, dream-like landscape. By no means did Dali invent it, although he and his contemporaries in the ealry 20th century popularized it, but if you look at Hieronymus Bosch who painted in the 15th century and you find some really bizarre paintings that are classic surrealism.

To establish the colourful weave pattern I started with colour washes done wet in wet so they blossomed and bloomed and bled together. Once dry I overlayed with the weave pattern, which I spent some time working out in my doodle books during some meeting or another. The weave pattern is highly variable, which makes it more interesting, rather than making it a mathematically precise kind of design. Once the weave outline dried I overlayed a grey wash to give the weave density, leaving the colourful parts to show through...I wanted there to be a surreal light coming from under the weave. Also, as in the beach painting presented last time, I put a red wash on the bottom of the picture to make the foreground warm and pop out... I do this is almost every landscape after I learned the trick in 2004 from an art dealer/critic in London Ontario at the Artisan's Alley.

15x11" cold press. 2010.