The Dragon's Return

I took this quick shot of a moderately interesting, but otherwise fairly unremarkable, cloud while out walking.  I didn't think much of it then.

However, upon taking another look later at home, I thought I noticed something, a tinge of familiarity(?);  so I gave the image a quarter turn, sharpened it up a bit, heightened contrast... and yes, my hunch proved correct;  it's another dragon, a dragon of bones only -- unlike my other, "normal" dragon Dracovolans australocaliforniensis maximus -- falling down from the sky!

But a Dragon falling out of Heaven... isn't that Lucifer?

Related posts:  Something Really, Truly, Is Going On Up

                          There

                         Dracovolans australocaliforniensis maximus

                         Another Dragon

                         The Fall Of Lucifer

Speaking Of Lucifer...

This sight made me think of the Shining One, God's favorite before his failed rebellion, attended by a host of lesser angels.

Related post:  The War In Heaven

The Fall Of Lucifer, Version 2

How perfect is this!  Lucifer ('Light-Bearer') falling from heaven, literally.  The Sun and the clouds were cooperating yesterday.

NATURE IMITATING ART

I suppose, though, this image is also a shoo-in for 'Phaëton's Doom', as well as the cataclysm described in Revelation 8:10 ("The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky...").

The Fall Of Lucifer

Something I started years ago, inspired by William Blake's Bible illustrations and -- well, pretty much everything else he did - and also Max Beckmann's Falling Man (with apologies to both masters).  I just took it out and dusted it off today.  I quite like the conceptualization;  I don't remember why I rolled it up and put it away unfinished.

That broken chain around Lucifer's ankle may have been a mistake, though.  It isn't really necessary to show his subjugation, and it kind of makes it seem he is hanging rather than falling.  I'm going to have to paint it out.  Also, I'm going to add stars to the space around him, to show he is falling through material space, having been cast out of God's spiritual realm.  The strange mechanistic shapes to either side are intended to show that the Bright One has been exiled to the world of reason and material law -- our human world that is -- which Blake equated to hell.

Related post:  Devil on the Floor;  The Temptation Of Eve;  And Some More... Old Art

Helios II

PHAËTHON'S DOOM

Related Post:  Helios I

Devil On The Floor

I came home from work, pulled into the underground parking garage, and left the car for the valets to park as usual.  As I was walking toward the elevator I spotted this sinister image on the garage floor.  I passed it by at first, but then I changed my mind and went back to take a picture of it.  As I took this shot the valets became curious and came around to see what had attracted my attention.  Immediately one of them remarked, "Diablo!"

 

In fact, I think it bears more than a little resemblance to some of the devils in this unfinished project from waaay back.  It's my take on the Fall of the Rebel Angels.

Speaking of Dragons...

More Old Art from back when I still painted somewhat regularly

For a non-(formally)religious guy, I sure love religious imagery. I was trying my hand at a version of the Fall of the Rebel Angels. This is the upper half of a very long painting, showing Michael the Archangel triumphant over the Devil (in the guise of a hydra-like serpent/dragon); I'm not sure if it's proper to show the Devil beheaded, though -- wouldn't that imply that the Devil was not just defeated, but completely destroyed? Maybe I should have just shown him stabbed through the eye or something.

Yeah, I know the photo quality is crappy. It's partly because the surface of the painting was deliberately maltreated to make it look like an old, peeling fresco, and partly because I took this shot in situ at a gallery, where it was impossible to control the lighting conditions.

Oh wait, I forgot that the Devil in this painting has two heads -- it's hard to see in this image, but it's there, right below that severed head. So it's O.K. -- the Devil may have lost one of his heads, but he has another in reserve. Wouldn't want Ol' Scratch gone, you know...