Before The Fall is a large expressive oil painting on canvas by London artist Ryan Louder, painted in 2024. It comes straight from his experience of REM intrusion — the visions that arrive at the very edge of sleep, when dream imagery bleeds into the waking world. The figures in this painting emerge from darkness rather than sitting inside it: forms caught in the threshold state between waking and sleep, as tangible as they are transient. They are the familiar spectres of my narcolepsy, diagnosed at Guy's Hospital in London, and they arrive most often in the moment of falling asleep — hypnagogic hallucinations given body and paint. The title is the moment itself. Not the dream, but the instant before it takes hold: the surrender at the edge of the fall, the last breath of control before the dream world takes over. This oil painting on canvas is sent rolled and fully insured — the only safe way to ship a painting this size. An A3 fine art print of this piece is also available in my shop. I'm a London-based artist, and my work reflects vivid, surreal imagery drawn from REM intrusion — a condition where dream-like visions appear while I'm awake. My paintings explore the boundary between waking reality and the dream world, using layered compositions to create depth and movement.
