The Flowering of Inspiration 1978

This is a watercolour painting by Salvador Dalí, called 'The Flowering of Inspiration'. He’s created a real head-scratcher of a picture here, so let's see if we can figure it out. Dalí builds the painting with flowing washes of colour that bleed softly into the paper. Look at the head – it’s a bouquet of roses! A surreal explosion of pinks, yellows, and whites blooms out of a woman's torso. You can imagine Dalí, brush in hand, coaxing these colours to life, one petal at a time. I'm wondering if he was thinking about the way that ideas can blossom in our minds, like flowers unfolding in spring, or whether maybe he was just in love with painting flowers that day? The flowing lines of the torso and soft palette reminds me of work by Georgia O'Keeffe, they were definitely in conversation, and I'm sure, competing with one another! Painting can often feel like this, a mix of intention and accident, where the image emerges slowly, surprising even the artist.