My earliest days as an artist were when I was deeply into surrealism, especially imagery that seemed to appear like dreams I've had.
I still love those images. Many of Salvador Dali's works were like that, and his realistic technique made the "dreams" totally believable -- a look that I embraced.
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| Suburbs of a Paranoic-Critical Town |
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| Detail |
(Sorry the detail of the painting isn't sharper).
For the dreamy effect, this is one of my favorite Dali paintings -- in particular, the gal holding the bunch of grapes, looking directly at the viewer, is exactly the type of thing I see in MY dreams.
Yet, another artist made paintings that appear to be even more dreamlike -- those of Belgium artist Paul Delvaux. The people (often women) sit or walk as if they are in a dreamlike trance.
Many of Delvaux's figures are nude, and I don't want to freak out my more conservative readers. So here is an example of a Delvaux painting without too much nudity (or lesbian activity, which he seemed to be into):
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| The Retreat - Paul Delvaux |
Delvaux usually painted females, a few males, architecture, trains and human skeletons -- often in some combination within a piece.
His realism technique isn't, in my opinion, as nice as Dali's, but Delvaux's images appeal to me more. The latter's art reminds me so much of what I see when I sleep (except my dreams have more variety). I get a kick out of my dreams, but I've rarely painted actual dreams of mine because I often feel like they wouldn't lend themselves to a single image. (If I made videos and had the means to pull them off, THAT might be different!)
I'll continue to paint traditional, classical realism-inspired landscapes. But painting surreal scenes gets my soul into my work in a way that realism doesn't. We'll see what I come up with!
Mark Junge
www.MarkJunge.com
