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Brushfire: Illuminations from the Inferno
With a verisimilitude Hieronymus Bosch would have admired, Wayne Barlowe renders his latest visual nightmare in a startling yet classic style. Fifteen new paintings, along with numerous drawings, portray a world of warriors, hellish beasts, and infernal landscapes. With its heavy stock, embossed cover, and button-tie closure, this book resembles an authentic portfolio.
30 pages, Paperback
First published July 10, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 4, 2008
Author Wayne Barlowe's recent visual explorations of Hell are among the most sophisticated in modern fantasy art, and Brushfire is his most impressive work in this venture. This collection of paintings is quite small (15 paintings in all), but the oversized format allows each piece to be examined closely. Barlowe's attention to detail is famously lavish, but this may be his first book with large enough pages to really appreciate it.
Following the groundwork laid in , Brushfire is written "in character," as if Barlowe were a guest in Hell painting portraits of various inhabitants. These portraits are at once shockingly alien and disturbingly human. My favorite pieces is , but it's a difficult field to choose from because so many of the portraits are amazing. The paintings (accompanied by sparse descriptions to provide context) imply a larger story without describing it in express terms, allowing the reader to wonder and speculate.
Without question, Barlowe's demons and lost souls are not for everyone. His triumph as an artist is his success at depicting Hell in organic terms: the landscape itself appears in pain, and every resident is grotesque in a way that resonates with the viewer. Much as Bosch succeeded in his era at depicting Hell in terms of teeming pandemonium (quite literally), Barlowe succeeds at depicting Hell as a world in which, despite the pandemonium, every being there suffers in an intensely personal way. It is a Hell informed by our modern values of individuality: a hell where every soul is different and whose scarred body tells a story. This suffering, rendered as raw alien flesh, will disturb some viewers, but others will find it hauntingly beautiful.
Following the groundwork laid in , Brushfire is written "in character," as if Barlowe were a guest in Hell painting portraits of various inhabitants. These portraits are at once shockingly alien and disturbingly human. My favorite pieces is , but it's a difficult field to choose from because so many of the portraits are amazing. The paintings (accompanied by sparse descriptions to provide context) imply a larger story without describing it in express terms, allowing the reader to wonder and speculate.
Without question, Barlowe's demons and lost souls are not for everyone. His triumph as an artist is his success at depicting Hell in organic terms: the landscape itself appears in pain, and every resident is grotesque in a way that resonates with the viewer. Much as Bosch succeeded in his era at depicting Hell in terms of teeming pandemonium (quite literally), Barlowe succeeds at depicting Hell as a world in which, despite the pandemonium, every being there suffers in an intensely personal way. It is a Hell informed by our modern values of individuality: a hell where every soul is different and whose scarred body tells a story. This suffering, rendered as raw alien flesh, will disturb some viewers, but others will find it hauntingly beautiful.
January 13, 2011
Fantastic art accompanied with Barlowe's commentary, as though he were granted special permission for an artistic sojourn in Hell.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
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