Description
Watercolor – One of my favorite places to draw in Spain is the Monforte Gardens in Valencia. The trees, ponds, shrubs, fountains, sculptures and maze-like hedges were designed to replicate the estate of a wealthy Roman aristocrat. I listen intently: What are these statues, trees and hedges trying to tell me? What hidden Memory wants to be heard? One morning I accidentally discovered in a newspaper a photograph of an enormous plaster head. In my imagination, I saw it as a portrait of some forgotten pope. So I added a white mask and the red skullcap and laid it in the Garden. (I didn’t need to invent the two feral cats. They live wild here, like the cats of Rome.)
After many years of painting landscapes and city scenes, curiosity drew me towards the vivid images of my dreams. I was aware of the works of Joan Miró, Max Ernst, Dalí and Paul Delveaux, but only gradually realized that the images that arose in my own sleep were just as worthy of being painted as the scenes I observed during my waking hours. They are formidable challenges to paint, and if I were confined to painting either the waking or sleeping aspects of life, I would paint dreams.
