Bob Watt
The Terrors of the Deep
Salvador Dali pointed out in the fourth of his Five Thoughts on Art (in his Fifty Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship(1948)) that 'If you understand your painting beforehand, you might as well not paint it'. Indeed. This started life as an illustration of Jacques Brel's Port of Amsterdam and turned into something strange - here the irrational and the rational kiss.
West Virginia v Environmental Protection Agency
A number of fossil fuel interests challenged - ultimately in the US Supreme Court (now packed with Donald Trump's nominees) - the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to issue regulations protecting the environment. Yosemite National Park is now on fire. Here stands Alecto - the chief of the Furies - leaning on a pile of coal, the maddened dryad leaves her dying tree, whilst Beauty takes Charon's ferry across the Styx.
Yosemite Sam looks on with anger. I am reminded of the words placed as a warning on the nuclear waste repository in New Mexico to last for the next 10,000 years. "This is not a place of honor. Nothing valuable is collected here".
Still Life with Grey Boy and Demon
Inspired by two stories from Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things - 'October in the chair' and 'Other People'. To steal shamelessly the words of The Strawbs' Benedictus - "Bless all those whose hearts grow faint".
Bob Watt is a retired Professor of Law. His interest is in the philosophies of surrealism; he is currently reading for a (second) PhD in the philosophy of perception and phenomenology of selected works of Salvador Dali. Bob now paints in oils.