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Title: Time To Go To Sleep Now... The Sleeping Tibetan Monk.
Medium: acrylic on canvas. Original painting, not framed.
Date painted: March 2011.
Image size: 36" x 24" (91.4cm x 61cm).
Availability: Available for sale.
Price: £1200

Prints
Open edition fine art paper prints of this painting are available exclusively and directly from myself. Image size: 9 x 6 inches. Price: £30 with mount and protective wrapping. Price includes postage and packing. For customers ordering outside the UK, please add an extra £10 to the price to cover shipping costs. Larger fine art prints (on archival paper or on box canvas) will be available to order from February 2012, but please allow up to 28 days for these larger prints to be delivered.

About the painting...

This is a very special piece of artwork which was inspired by a painting I saw within a dream and is the first of my 'dream imagery-inspired' art. The painting features an elderly Tibetan Buddhist monk sleeping peacefully outdoors during the latter part of the afternoon. He is asleep on a terrace, at a monastery, in Tibet. The time of year is spring and the cherry blossom is already beginning to fall. The flowers in the foreground are Primula Alpicola, which are native to south east Tibet. On the Tibetan table is a stick of Tibetan incense and an ornamental box; and on the seating area beside the monk is a Tibetan singing bowl and a small scroll of sacred writings. The monk's hat (which, I believe, is known as the Vinaya hat) is one of the distinctive hats traditionally worn by the monks that belong to the Gelug tradition.

In the early part of the dream, I was present in the scene and was standing close to the monk, watching him as he slept, sensing an aura of tranquillity that seemed to spiritually radiate from him. A few moments later, the entire scene changed and the monk and his surroundings transformed into a large painting. I found myself looking at the monk, who was now a part of the painting, and as I noted the colours of the fragile cherry blossom, the sky, the monk's hat and outer garment etc, a sudden realization came to me that I was the creator of this painting. After waking from the dream I quickly made a sketch of what I had seen. The dream made me realize how inspiration cannot be sought at will or received on demand - inspiration is beyond the artist's control. It is my belief that inspiration is provided or given, like a gift, and therefore its arrival will always be unexpected and unpredictable - but always appreciated, welcomed and gratefully received. I believe the purpose of inspiration is either to solve something or to be the catalyst for the creation of something new in the waking world. As for the question of why I should see a buddhist monk in one of my dreams, that for the moment remains unclear and is a bit of a mystery.

Original Sketch No.1

The image above is the sketch I created immediately after waking from the dream. It wasn't until about five months later that I made the decision to paint the picture. Like the surrealists of the early twentieth century, who sometimes sought artistic inspiration from the subconscious mind (e.g. from dream imagery or from automatic drawing), the idea of exploring the unconscious in order to create works of art began to intrigue and appeal to me. The subconscious is unquestionably a rich and valuable resource for creative inspiration and, like Carl Gustav Jung's 'collective unconscious', which provides a common or shared link to a so-called 'human race memory', the mind becomes (for an artist, on a visual level) an inner world of archetypes: sometimes powerful and fantastical images that represent the deepest aspects of human nature and the human psyche. Though how much of this imagery has its origins in the ego or identity of the self, how much is spiritual or mystical, pure fantasy, and how much is actually from the 'collective unconscious' is a moot point and can only be a conjecture at best. Nonetheless, the fact that I perceived the image of the sleeping monk - which to me (even though I have no current interest in buddhism), represents a classic type of archetype and is undoubtedly a visual metaphor for tranquillity - and made use of it in my art proves that an artist has the ability to translate and make a copy of something that is an inner experience or something personal, instead of traditionally creating art from something that is tangible and perceived and witnessed by one or more persons at any one moment in time in the waking world of reality.

Sketch No.2

On an A3 sheet of paper (see above), I used the 'Golden Section' to determine the centre of interest in the picture: the point where the front of the hat touches the monk's forehead.

Information about the painting

Paints used
Acrylic paints: New Masters by Old Holland and Liquitex Professional Heavy Body paints.

Canvas used
Loxley Gold stretched canvas. A medium grain 100% acid-free cotton canvas, sized and triple primed for acrylic paints. Approximate size: 36 x 24 inches.

I began the underpainting on Sunday 27th February 2011. I used New Masters Yellow Ochre mixed with New Masters Titanium White for the monk's hat, and New Masters Rose Doré Extra mixed with New Masters Titanium White for the monk's outer garment. I also used New Masters Rose Doré Extra and New Masters Yellow Ochre for the distant hills and mountains and for the area beneath the seating, in order to create a warm foundation. A mixture of New Masters Raw Umber and New Masters Titanium Buff Light was used for the actual seating area, and a mixture of New Masters Olive Green and Titanium White was used for the monk's face. I also gave the monk's outer garment a second layer of Rose Doré Extra and Titanium White.

 

I used a small amount of New Masters Prussian Blue Extra mixed with New Masters Titanium White and Titanium Buff Light to create a light turquoise sky. I painted the stonework, beneath the seat, using a mixture of New Masters Mars Black, Raw Umber and Titanium Buff Light.

 

I painted the sky using a lighter turquoise mixture and painted the lower part of the sky using a combination of New Masters Prussian Blue, Titanium White, Rose Doré, Yellow Ochre, Titanium Buff Light and a small amount of Liquitex Cadmium Yellow. I also used Raw Umber to paint the small branch.

 

I used a mixture of New Masters Mars Black, Olive Green, Raw Sienna and Titanium Buff Light for the hills and mountains.

 

Next, I painted the monk's outer garment using a mixture of New Masters Rose Doré Extra, Liquitex Quinacridone Red and Liquitex Cadmium Yellow. For shadows, I added New Masters Mars Black and Raw Umber to the above mixture, and for the highlights I added Titanium Buff Light.

 

For the wooden panelling on the seating, I used New Masters Raw Umber and Raw Sienna. For highlights, I mixed in some Titanium Buff Light.

 

I painted over the stonework, to make it look like a rendered wall, by using a small amount of New Masters Mars Black mixed with Titanium Buff Light. For the shadows (created by the monk's outer garment), I used a small amount of Rose Doré Extra, to give the impression that the fabric's colour was being subtly reflected onto the wall.

 

Next, I painted the snow on the distant mountains using New Masters Titanium White. I also used a mixture of Titanium White, Yellow Ochre and a small amount of Prussian Blue Extra for the distant river.

 

I painted the second layer of the monk's face using New Masters Titanium White, Rose Doré Extra, Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, Raw Umber and Prussian Blue Extra.

 

Next, I brightened up the lower part of the sky further by using a glaze of New Masters Titanium White and a small amount of Liquitex Cadmium Yellow.

 

I painted a bowl and small scrolls of parchment on the seating area. I also painted a pink glaze over the entire sky and distant hills and mountains using a mixture of New Masters Titanium White and Liquitex Quinacridone Red.

 

Using Titanium White, I painted another layer of snow on the mountains.

 

Next, I painted the sky with a much thicker mixture of Titanium White and Liquitex Quinacridone Red.

 

I painted the distant hills and mountains using New Masters Prussian Blue Extra, Raw Umber, Titanium White and a small amount of Mars Black.

 

Next, I painted an additional layer over the Monk's face. I also painted the branches and cherry blossom using Titanium White and Rose Doré.

 

Using Liquitex Cadmium Yellow and Quinacridone Red, I painted the lower part of the sky, in order to create an impression of light and warmth.

 

Next, I painted some more cherry blossom. I also added a light pink glaze over the lower part of the sky using Titanium White and Rose Doré. I also painted a thin white glaze over the mountains to create an impression of distance. I painted the monk's hat using Yellow Ochre, Raw Umber, Raw Sienna and Titanium Buff Light.

 

Next, I painted a dark layer over the monk's face using Raw Umber and Ultramarine Blue Extra. I also painted the monk's outer garment with a layer of Titanium White and Rose Doré. I painted another layer on the wall, beneath the seating, with a mixture of Mars Black, Ultramarine Blue Extra and Titanium White.

 

I painted the monk's face again. I also painted a fine glaze over the monk's hat using New Masters Yellow Ochre and Titanium White. I painted another layer on the scroll, using Liquitex Parchment and Titanium White. When it had dried, I painted the writing on the scroll. I also added another layer to the wall rendering, beneath the seating, using a mixture of Rose Doré, Raw Umber and Titanium White.

 

I painted a thin glaze of Rose Doré over the monk's outer garment. Then I painted a layer of Titanium White and a mixture of Liquitex Cadmium Red and Liquitex Parchment over the lower part of the sky. I worked some more on the monk's face, using Raw Umber and painted some more cherry blossom, including fallen petals on the monk's outer garment.

 

Next, I painted a Tibetan table using Liquitex Burnt Umber. I repainted the bowl (in the design style of a Tibetan Singing bowl) using Burnt Umber and Titanium Buff Light. In the foreground, I painted flower stems and leaves using New Masters Olive Green. I also painted additional cherry blossom.

 

I painted another layer over the stems and leaves using a mixture of New Masters Olive Green and Liquitex Cadmium Yellow. I mixed Rose Doré Extra with Prussian Blue Extra and Titanium White to create the flowers.

 

Next, I painted another layer over the monk's outer garment using a mixture of New Masters Rose Doré Extra, Mars Black (for shadows), Liquitex Quinacridone Red and Liquitex Cadmium Red (the Cadmium Red was mixed with Liquitex Parchment, to give it a reddish-orange hue, for highlights).

 

I repainted the flowers using Liquitex Dioxazine Purple, Liquitex Quinacridone Magenta, Liquitex Light Blue Violet and Liquitex Titanium White. I also painted some more layers on the table using Liquitex Burnt Umber, Liquitex Iridescent Rich Copper, Liquitex Mixing Grey and Liquitex Titanium White.

 

Next, I used Liquitex Burnt Umber, Liquitex Iridescent Copper, Liquitex Iridescent Bronze and Liquitex Titanium White to paint the ornamental box on the table. I also re-painted the fallen blossom petals using a mixture of New Masters Titanium White and Rose Doré Extra.

 

I painted the flower stems and added a few more flowers. I also painted an incense stick holder on the table (using a mixture of Mars Black and Titanium Buff Light) and painted a stick of incense using Yellow Ochre and Raw Sienna. For the smoke, I used Titanium White, diluted with water.

 

I painted shadows around the fallen blossom (also painted a few more fallen blossom petals) and painted highlights on the table ornament.

 

Finally, I repainted the monk's hat and face and made some alterations to the cherry blossom on the left side of the picture. This painting took 32 days to complete and was signed and dated on Wednesday 30th March 2011.

 

Details

 

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