Gathered in our sleep

This is a glorious piece that only makes me wish I had a larger monitor to view it. Most striking, for me, is the rich use of colour that places the scene somewhere on the boundaries of fantasy and reality, perhaps entering the dream-world. The young couple seem to carry the colours with them; while there's something simple and subdued about their depiction, there is a glow about them that radiates out to bathe the trees and path as they pass.

The trees are an absorbing creation in themselves; the layered complexity of the leaves and the arrangement of the branches lends both space and intimacy to the picture, leading the eye forward, beyond the figures and onward to their apparent destination. I'm also fascinated by the bench, which is rooted into the ground - I've seen similar ideas in other work, and it usually strikes me as sinister, but here I get only a sense of safety. Dreams, by their very nature, flow into one another and the boundaries are blurred, and the root-growing bench is a perfect symbol of that fluidity.

A beautiful piece of work that deserves repeated viewing to fully absorb.