Leonard Aitken - Artist

Surreal Paintings Gallery.

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Most paintings in this gallery are for sale.

Many of the prices are negotiable.

Feel free to ring me on (02) 6652 7271 or email me (go to contact page) for offers or questions.

“My surrealist works are wild and varied. Many are poetic representations of ideas or feelings which I have imagined or experienced. Others are based on dreams. Some of these works are just confections and closer to the realm of fantasy. Still others are purely improvised. These works begin with nothing more than the desire to paint. The paint goes on at random and the image grows and evolves. Often the concepts of these works evolve out of the process of painting. The use of space in my surrealist works is often ambiguous. Forms or areas of paint shimmer, moving backwards and forwards within the implied three dimensional plane of the painted surface. These shifting perspectives are like those moments of transformation within dreams where reality changes to unreality, or where scenes or meanings alter suddenly. The titles of these pieces are usually poetic and invite the viewer to observe the painting from their  own perspective.”

This gallery and the surreal mixed media gallery are the closest to an abstract art gallery on this site. I prefer my art to have some sort of figurative element, so as the viewer can find something solid from which an interpretation of a painting can be based. My surreal works are largely based around the landscape with spiritual  and human elements creeping in (and hopefully out) of them. My fantasy art is probably best suited to the young or young at heart.

Surreal art paintings.

Surreal art paintings should evoke the workings of the subconscious mind. They should either remind one of dreams dreamt, or create a dreamlike state where the viewer can see things which may only be suggested by the forms in the surrealist paintings. In contrast an abstract art gallery would contain paintings which do not evoke suggested imagery. Purely non-representative art has another agenda altogether.

Fantastic art or fantasy art is another type of art once again. It has a stronger tendency toward the figurative, and is more like the work adorning science fiction and fantasy book covers. Surreal fantasy art falls somewhere between fantasy and surreal art - there will be elements of both types of art in it. True Surrealism art does not have to be dark, does not have to contain clear imagery, can be whimsical and comical and may even be able to unlock secrets within the mind of the viewer.