Late Friday Funday- The Bard and the Wolf Witch

Very often I find inspiration in many places, then pull it together for one painting. It's great fun for me to piece these different elements into one painting. 
  My fantasy painting "Bard and the Wolf Witch", available on my Art of John French Fantasy page, is a perfect example of the marrying of many inspirational parts into one painting.

  First,  a word about the style. At this time I was experimenting with glazes, trying to get a stained glass feel. This inspiration came from a trip to Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland is full of Tiffany Stained glass windows, peppered throughout it's once rich architectural landscape. Louis Tiffany used some unusual chemical processes to create the pains of glass. The effect is deep, rich color and atmosphere.

I accomplished a similar feel by outlining major portions and regions with dark paint. Then I layering thin glazes of pure color over other color, and blended two colors together in each region. The original glows!

Next, lets talk about the background: Near the town I live in is a huge network of abandoned iron mine sites. There are miles and miles of tunnels running underneath the rocky hills. as a result of ths undermining, one of the hills is pealing away from itself, like a rotting onion. This has left some narrow and very deep crevices on one side of the hill. Iterestingly, a lot of the iron ore from these mines was shipped to... yep, Cleveland!

  I increased the scale of this already incredible feature and added a waterfall to it. I knew I wanted some sort of conflict to take place on the log. I decided it should be wild physique against calm, spiritual intellect. To further enhance the opposing and conflicting ideas, I decided one should be female, the other male. 
  The female came easy. She's based on some sketches I'd done much earlier. I gave her a fatastical wolf as a companion. As for the male, it was time to go back to Cleveland!
   Like most cemeteries, Lake View Cemetery (thanks, Stephen Bay) is a haven of art, architecture, culture and history. Lake View is the final resting place of President Garfield, John D Rockefeller,  Eliot Ness, and many other wealthy Cleveland socialites. The statue below is a grave marker of one of these people from a time when Cleveland was more affluent. I believe it's St.John. In one hand he holds a large book, and though you can't see it here, there's an Eagle perched at his feet.

I'm sorry, but I can't find the original picture I took and used.

  I mirrored the statue and replaced the book with a harp. Now I had a revered and wise bard, searching for something, and on finding it is challenged by his polar opposite.
  The result isn't a clash of good and evil (as someone recently pointed out to me at an art show, wolves aren't evil). It's more of a clash of cultures and of spirituality; a clash which puts both sides on the brink of destruction!

  "The Bard and the Wolf Witch" is available directly from the artist for $325.00.