Taking inspiration from Dr. Suess, I decided to create a midnight painting of my own (see notebook entry on Dr. Suess). I wanted my mind to let loose and just make art, without worry of quality or pleasing others.
Usually I'm trying to pull off this big massive painting with a grand meaning and hidden message. This time I just wanted to explore my mind, and come up with a nonsense landscape of my own.
I started this piece by just making shapes, walls and stairs, they didn't need to have purpose or even make sense, I was just doing it to do it. Then I joined them all together to make this bizarre structure that had no function, yet there is some strange familiarity to it. It was actually surprisingly hard to come up with my own landscape, making shapes is one thing, but this really tackled my brain by making it look realistic enough to actually be something.
However I love how this little experiment came out, even though it was only made on A4 paper. The deep dark oil paint of the background creates such a looming atmosphere against the bright blue watercolor of the pillars and walls. The juxtaposition between not only the colors but the texture of the medium is really satisfying as the lighter areas appear as if they are floating. As if they are not part of this gloomy landscape at all, adding to the weird and wonderful sensation that is created from a piece like this.
The process of making this piece was really nice, it was peaceful as I wasn't trying to impress anyone with my skills or attempt a subject too massive. It was just nice to express myself and my mind and what I created turned out to be truly unique coming from my mind alone.
This second Midnight painting was inspired by one of Dr.Suess's collection titled 'A prayer for a child'. This peace coming with a poem that says "From here on earth, from my small place, I ask of you way out in space: please tell all men in every land l What you and I both understand. Please tell all men that peace is good. That's all that need be understood l in every world in your great sky. We understand. Both you and I"
There is an enormous sense of tranquility I receive from this work, something that reminds me of Christmas as the smoke rises into the cosmos. This surrealist landscape is so beautiful to me that I had to re-create it for myself.
Instead of a small house I chose to use a lighthouse to add another light source to the image. I have used watercolor pencils to create this piece on a n A4 piece of paper. Due to Covid I wasn't able to travel to the studio, so I had to downgrade my medium for a while.
However, this really gave me a chance to explore my artistic style, there wasn't as much pressure to create a masterpiece on a canvas.
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