This piece was done for a surreal challenge. My work often borders the absurd or sometimes happily lives in the domain of Whimsy, so this felt a direction I could happily travel.
The piece, in it's surreal aspects, begs the viewer to wonder at the female figure. Is she holding on, possibly saved by the passing flying whale from a sinking boat which is, in a surreal fashion, also an upturned umbrella? Or, perhaps, she is not at sea but upon the hard surface of some reality poking at a passing whale, aloft in the clouds? Or could it be still the whale is swimming upside in the sea pulling under the figure who is in the water because her umbrella boat is capsized and we are merely viewing the scene upside down?
The piece began as a sketch in charcoal and pencil and then was scanned. I used digital oil and oil pastel and a bit of chalk to make the final image.
I think of the words of the old song sung by Ella Fitzgerald: All alone, all at sea...
I hope your day is filled with surreal dreams of candy floss skies.
