Rubies and Lemons

  There is a scientific term – Hypnagogia – which refers to the transitional state between wakefulness and sleep. It is the time that our body is asleep, but our mind is still partially conscious. It is a state that I particularly enjoy. Amongst the more common sensory features of hypnagogia are: random speckles; lines or geometric patterns; or sometimes figurative images. They may be monochrome or richly patterned; flat or three-dimensional. Images are typically fleeting and subject to rapid change. Just when you think you have registered something it is already turning into something else. Elements are permanently in flux. They are pure – in that they have no explanatory meaning outside of themselves. They simply exist by randomly ‘coming into being’. I always think of the hypnagogic state when I view David Palliser’s paintings. To me, they seem to operate in a similar way. Forms emerge and subside; objects are obliquely suggested, even as they meld into something else. Of course