Abstracting the secret code

One of my blog posts from a few weeks ago has sparked off an interesting conversation, which has led to a meeting this week to discuss it in further depth. The meeting took longer than probably both sides expected and that was mostly because of the subject matter.

Now, bear in mind that I always say I can paint anything for anybody, that I like a challenge, that I can paint any subject, in any media, that I like abstract art, surreal art, and traditional art,  that I like hiding things and secret messages within a picture. Bear all of that in mind, and then hear what the client wants me to do.

He wants me to paint a landscape.

He wants a certain type of weather to be within the picture.

He wants the picture to be a natural landscape of hills, trees, rivers, grass.

He wants a certain period of history to be part of the picture, that may be depicted in a building or buildings.

There might be certain types of creatures within the picture, but there won’t be any animals, or fish, and certainly not any mermaids.

He doesn’t want anything within the picture to be stronger than anything else, like a large rock in the foreground, or a big tree.

He wants the whole thing to look like a pleasant landscape.

And yet, there will be things hidden within that landscape that only he and I know will relate to other things. And he wants me to put those things within the picture. And just to make it even more interesting, these things are abstract concepts.  He has told me in some depth what these abstract items will be, but he is leaving it to me to think of the ways of depicting them. But, he doesn’t want them painting in abstract, or surreal ways. They are to be painted as representational things, but they will be complex abstract concepts. And not abstract as in “time” or “music” but even more abstract than that.  

Whew, that’s going to be a deep one, really deep. And one that we both know will get me thinking……

Its like painting a really complex secret code, that only he and I know.

But I know I can do it for him, once I’ve applied my mind to it. And he knows that too, which is why he asked me to do it.

And its going to make my “Tree of life” picture look clumsy by comparison………..