Chinese Red Dragon Statue

I found this video on Viddler.com .
An interesting promotion method of
your own product.
I add this video on my blog for different
reason of course. And the reason is
the dragon.
Red Chinese Dragon Statue. His name is Secretsoarer Fyrescale! Peculiar.

Fantasy Art and Dragons

I am very, very busy at the moment with a brand new internet project. It combines Art, Fantasy Art and Dragons from Orion in an Online World. I am very curious to discover in which direction it will develop and grow.

In the beginning I got a crazy idea, a vision, and a wild story in my brain. The story is about two baby dragons from another planet and another celestial time. The next step was the creation of the dragons. I just sat down and drew them. Jim liked them very much, his kids liked them too, my kids and friends liked them also, and I .........I just fell in love with them...I'm still in love.

Enough words about it, if you are curious just go to the page and keep in touch as things progress, I think the voyage will be very exciting. I hope you will enjoy my creation together with me.

http://fantasydragonart.com

Vampire versus Vampire, Dracula and Lilith

The notion of vampirism has existed for millennia; cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, and Romans had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. However, despite the occurrence of vampire-like creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity we know today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from early 18th century South-Eastern Europe, when verbal traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published. In most cases, vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or witches, but they can also be created by a malevolent spirit possessing a corpse or by being bitten by a vampire. Belief in such legends became so pervasive that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even public executions of people believed to be vampires. (Info: Wiki)

The most beautiful vampire was without doubt Lilith from the painting by John Collier, 1892. The most gorgeous, seductive, full blood vampire!

The mythical Lilitu was probably born in the story tales in the ancient Babylonia. Lilitu was considered a demon and was often depicted as subsisting on the blood of babies. However, the Jewish counterparts were said to feast on men and women, as well as newborns.

Who was the most famous vampire?

I guess the “Little Dragon” alias Dracula. It means also the son of dragon or devil.
In real he was a nobleman, a prince, father of three sons. Vlad III was as prince maintained an independent policy in relation to the Ottoman Empire, and in Romania, he is viewed by many historicises as a prince with a deep sense of justice and a defender of Wallachia (part of Hungary) against Ottoman expansionism.
His absurdly cruel punishments earn him the nickname in later years of Vlad the Impaler, which echoed the mode of death that would destroy the legendary Count Dracula.

In the English-speaking world, Vlad III is best known for inspiring the name of the eponymous vampire in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula. Stoker came across the name Dracula in a history book- which mistranslated it as “Wallachian for devil”- and substituted it for his character’s original name, Count Wampyr.
I wonder or the English would have been happy if the people of Wallachia had painted Queen Victoria as a very cruel, despotic, imperialistic witch. Probably not.

Boltzmann Babies

My entry to the Simpleology competition for "Be the Next Best selling Author"

The Witcher Intro

The Witcher Intro has been nominated by Visual Effects Society for the annual VES awards in the category of "Outstanding Pre-Rendered Visuals in a Video Game".

Outstanding production by Tomasz Baginski, Marcin Kobylecki, Grzegorz Kukus and Maciek Jackiewicz from Platige Image. Check out their other projects including the "Cathedral"

New surrealist painting - Bizarre Dream

I just finished my new surrealist painting. Tell me what do you think about it? Feed back is actually not really a good thing for an artist. I have to admit I don't like criticism, I hate it. Negative critique has always discouraged me. Probably it is normal, especially if you are an artist; we have big egos but also very often we are very uncertain about our creations.

Here is the painting - "Bizarre Dream" or should it be Bizz Dream"?

Wyverns in Sampford Brett

Sampford Brett is a very small village in the County of Somerset in South West England. My path often takes me through this village when I walk through the meadows, the woods and the fields around Williton (a village bigger than Sampford Brett). Sampford Brett is a village with some very old houses, with a beautiful garden (next to the church) that has stolen my heart and with an old church; a Gothic church naturally, The Church of St.George. Around the church there is an old cemetery (which is usual in the case of old churches in Europe). Some of the graves are extremely old. If you come across it by accident in the middle of the day, let's say in the summer, you will be delighted by the silence of this place, the beauty of the trees and the rose garden (by the entrance). Of course the present building of St. George Church cannot really be appreciated without some knowledge of how all this came about. This church is not the most amazing, or most beautiful medieval church in Somerset, but it has its own charm and attraction and an interesting history. The exact age of the church is uncertain but everything points to its foundation during the first q

uarter of the XIII century. By the end of the XIII century, the church consisted of a nave, chancel and a north transept. The tower was added in the XIV century, forming the main entrance to the church, and completing the basic structure which remained for almost five hundred years. In the XV century the use of the Perpendicular style of Gothic architecture was in full swing (and you can discover it in many medieval Somerset churches) and so the north transept of the St. George was extended, the walls of the nave and north transept were raised and new roofs added. Other major changes took place in XIX century. The style of this restoration is that of the early Victorian Gothic revival; very different in spirit and execution from the original. The results are still to be seen today, and they are the essence of the present church.

As you step from the porch into the nave your first sight of the interior of the church is an uninterrupted view through the nave and chancel to the east window. This is the body of the original church. The line of the roof still runs unbroken to the entrance to the chancel, confirming the medieval origin of the nave. The carved wooden roof bosses are part of the original roof. Although some of them are not in a very good state of preservation, they show great variety of style and subject matter. If you will look carefully you will find what I found, two creatures from the medieval bestiary; a pair of wyverns. Do you know what wyverns are? Wyverns are dragons with bat-like wings, long necks and only two legs. I also found in the roof of the nave a griffin and some vine leaves with a bunch of grapes. While you are outside the church if you look carefully up towards the tower you can discover a few remaining gargoyles; the evidence of the true Gothic style.

The most interesting and puzzling features of the church are the carved wooden bench ends. I couldn't believe that such a small unimportant village church in the middle of nowhere (who has heard of Sampford Brett?) could posses such incredibly wonderful artwork. No one knows how long they have been in the church, or how they came together as a collection. One of the wooden bench ends is associated with Florence Wyndham and the local legend about her. But expect more about this in my next post. See you soon.