Dreamer

A young woman serenely floats above a deserted city street. She seems asleep, probably dreaming. Is this her dream? Is she moving towards the far end of the street where it seems to abruptly end and enters the land of nightmares or is she moving away from a nightmare into the morning light of a new day, possibly hopeful but where is everyone? Is the light on her face coming from her bedside light?

I decided to paint something that to me falls under the heading of Imaginative Realism, after all it's real (kind of) but is completely imagined (apart from the reference photo of the figure, thanks Lucy!). I really tried to stretch the perspective so that there is a vertiginous drop at the bottom of the picture which then pans out to a level horizon of building silhouettes against the red sky (this background was always in my mind right from the early planning stage). It was important that the figure is not read as a giant standing on a Lilliput-sized street so I ensured that her feet float above a patch of light, there would normally be a shadow from them if she was standing there; I also put a shadow of the figure on the near building at right. The whole painting is based around a red/orange - green/blue complementary with a yellow - violet coming in as the street gets nearer. Oil on canvas 23 1/2" x 35 1/2". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting on earlier posts on this blog.