Half Asleep and Half Awake paintings form a pair.

These two paintings are (also) imaginary forest scapes inspired by a line from the poem by W.B. Yeats “The Land of Heart’s Desire” (1894).

The poem tells the story of the daughter of a King of Ireland, who “heard a voice singing on a May Eve like this, and followed half awake and half asleep, until she came into the Land of Faery”. I wanted to create scenes which reflect what might have been the journey taken by the young woman through the woods. I used gestural paint strokes and a palette of vibrant hues to hint at the magical and mysterious land of Faery.