From Time to Threshold: The Making of The Mariner’s Dream #6

Where Surrealism Takes Command

What begins as a seascape with fragments of sky transforms into something stranger, more symbolic. In this process video, I reveal how The Mariner’s Dream #6 came into being—not as a single gesture, but as four and a half hours of layered decisions, compressed into just four and a half minutes.

The timer in the corner marks the original passage of time, a reminder that what you see unfold in seconds was, in reality, a slow meditation of compositing, testing, and refining. Each minute of real work becomes a single second of video, collapsing hours of thought into a fleeting glimpse.

Building a Phantasmagoria

The video captures my working method in Photoshop, where mountain forms, glowing geometric artefacts, and drifting figures are woven into a symbolic terrain. You’ll see me rotate and resize elements, experiment with colour and blending, and gradually construct a composition that feels both mythic and otherworldly.

The pyramid and portal-like rectangle are not just shapes; they are archetypes—thresholds of ascension, passage, and metaphysical invitation. The two distant silhouettes give the scene emotional scale, suggesting pilgrimage, dream travel, or the quiet persistence of human presence within vast symbolic landscapes.

Beyond Technique

This isn’t a tutorial. It’s a glimpse into the way I think: how I move from observation to invention, from landscape to allegory. The final artwork retains the solidity of mountains, but refracts them through colour, geometry, and dream logic. Vibrant purples, reds, and blues conjure psychedelic associations, as if the subconscious itself has seized control of composition.

What emerges is not just an image, but a threshold: a place where perception bends, where landscapes become invitations, and where myth and memory converge.

For collectors, seekers, and those drawn to the symbolic and surreal.

The Final Artwork: The Mariner’s Dream #6

Available now as a museum-quality giclée print in multiple sizes, framed or unframed. Each print is crafted with archival inks and heavyweight paper, preserving every nuance of the layered composition.

Watch the Process

The video below compresses four and a half hours of image-making into four and a half minutes. The timer in the corner keeps you tethered to the real duration, even as the sped-up sequence reveals the work as a kind of visual incantation.

What you’ll see is a distillation of intuition, experimentation, and narrative intent. Each adjustment—whether the glow of a geometric artefact or the placement of a human silhouette—serves a symbolic purpose. The result is a phantasmagorical terrain: part landscape, part dream, part myth.

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