Inspired by Schubert’s Winterreise and Talking Heads
For a long time, I have carried the phrase “burning snow” in my treasure chest of ideas. I am not sure whether I came up with it myself. It may have emerged from my long engagement with Schubert’s Winterreise, or perhaps from a poem or a pop song.
Then I heard Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House” again. The phrase became an obsession, and eventually it turned into Burning Down the Snow.
After many years, I had begun to grapple with surrealism again, and that interest is visible here. A pale blue opening suggests sky; below it, slanting grey strokes and warmer peach and gold areas make the landscape less certain.
I am not sure I can call the painting entirely successful, but I think it contains some strong ideas. Above all, I wanted to provoke doubt by setting almost photographic associations against abstract or seemingly random marks.
A small dark form can suggest something recognisable, then dissolve into brushwork when you look again. That uncertain moment interests me. How much of a scene is already in the painting, and how much do we bring to it?
And if you like Talking Heads and have not heard this one for a while, here it is:
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