The Apotheosis of Terror

This week I'm overpainting The Apotheosis of Terror, a complex picture in the mould of The Migraine Tree (actually this picture pre-dates that one but it is larger and took more time to plan out). Last night I had another new painting idea. For a long time I've wanted to paint a stormy sea, partly because I've not painted any water so far. But I needed a story and the narrative was the sticking point. Last night the idea came to me. Once upon a time a company of sirens lured a ship to destruction to eat the crew (as sirens do) but when the siren queen saw one sailor she fell in love with him, and apparently he in love with her, but he was faking it and after a few months he escaped the siren's rocky kingdom. The queen flew into a furious rage and, upon seeing a ship carrying nothing more menacing than orphan pilgrims (or something like that), wrecked the ship. I think the title of the painting will be The Passion of the Psychotic Siren. Well, it's rare to go into such depth but the central idea or narrative is the key element, the soul of a painting because without it a picture is simply an image. A dream vision is an image that wraps up an idea, and so is good art.