HYPNAGOGIC IMAGE, 1940
Watercolour. 11 x 16¼in. (28.4 x 42cm.)
Signed: Colquhoun ’40 lower right.
Titled and dated on the reverse.
Provenance
National Trust bequest.
The work is unframed and has probably never been exhibited.
The hypnagogic state lies between dreaming and wakening. Being neither one nor the other, it is of interest to the alchemist, the psychotherapist, and provides a window to the unconscious that may be used by artists interested in automatic processes.
Many people experience vivid mental imagery in the hypnagogic state. Such images are frequently brightly coloured and often take the form of loose geometric shapes.