A snowy dance
A snowy dance
Embedded Files
16 × 20 in. · Acrylic on canvas
"Winter awoke things that should never have stirred.
An Ice Dragon, bound beneath a glacial lake since the First Age, broke free of its slumber.
A young peasant woman, Bahari, twirled about in the snow and was greeted by him first. She had not noticed immediately that he was waiting for her in the trees with bated breath."
Warm remembrance
Warm remembrance
16 × 20 in. · Acrylic on canvas
"Iain did not remember when he fell.
One moment he was shouting orders into the storm. He had been hurt, and in the next moment, the snow swallowed sound and color alike. He staggered, fingers numb, vision tunneling.
When he woke, firelight greeted him, not the harsh blaze of war, but a small, careful flame and a woman kneeling patiently beside him, tending his wounds."
The Banishment
The Banishment
16 × 20 in. · Acrylic on canvas
"“Witch,” Aarold shouted, his voice cracking through the wind. “Be gone from my halls!”
The sentence fell hard and swift.
Guards dragged her to the gates and thrust her forward into the rising blizzard. Snow swallowed her footprints almost at once, erasing her presence as efficiently as the court had."
Unrecognisable
Unrecognisable
16 × 20 in. · Acrylic on canvas
"Magic never gives without reshaping the vessel. Slowly, Iain’s reflection changed. His beauty sharpened, unnatural in its symmetry, cheekbones cutting like glass. His eyes darkened, catching the light like polished stone."
The Fall
The Fall
16 × 20 in. · Acrylic on canvas
"Whispers of rebellion fanned into plotting, and some angels fell, driven by rage and ambition, their hearts twisting against the very order they had once upheld. Heron’s teeth gnashed as he thought of his brother, still loyal to the heavens, unwilling to join the rupture."
Heron
Heron
11 × 14 in. · Acrylic on canvas
"Heron’s silhouette broke through the white. He was heavily armored, with long raven hair whipping back and forth in the wind. A dark angel with resentment toward Earth, he hated Aurelion for not siding with him—before God, before all of Heaven."
Aurelion
Aurelion
11 × 14 in. · Acrylic on canvas
"Aurelion landed in packed snow. It was the first time he had felt cold. He cowered into his robe and shivered. Feeling the discomfort of wet from the ice beneath him, Aurelion rose to his feet. He slowly trudged through the snow, his fur boots crunching with each step."
The story behind the series, Cold Banishment
The story behind the series, Cold Banishment
Cold Banishment is both a paint series and a work-in-progress novel. The paintings explore the characters, themes, and world of the story as the novel continues to take shape.
The story starts off with a high-fantasy spin on the beginnings of a world in turmoil. Think The Lord of the Rings high-fantasy world-building, where angels, humans, and other forces are all caught in a struggle over the fate of the world.
The first set of characters you are introduced to are the angelic forces Aurelion and Heron. They represent opposing views on mercy. Half the angels in the heavens found humans contemptible and fell, while the other half remain devoted to the traditions of angels. They’re brothers, so there is an immediate familial tension as well. One brother is a fearsome, beautiful sort of Fallen Angel. The other is a humble, unremarkable sort of being.
Because Aurelion isn’t a particularly passionate angel, he’s torn between his fondness for humans and his brother’s boiling hatred of them. He gets sent to the land of Veridian for entertaining his brother’s vitriol. The heavens sense his hesitation, and he is tested. The land is undergoing its own testing simultaneously.
The kingdom of Veridian is a thriving metropolis built on King Aarold’s relentless bloodthirst and zeal to keep it that way. Beneath the veneer of a lush green kingdom is a trail of conquest. This land becomes Heron and the other Fallen angels’ primary focus due to Aarold’s lust for more. They want to see the humans of the land create their own ruin.
And they nearly do.
The plot toward collapse is pointed at King Aarold’s vulnerable son, Iain, who resents his father. He’s quiet, meek, and gentle, his father’s opposite in every way. Feeling that he can never attain his father’s approval, he takes matters to extremes to amass strength and surpass him.
But in reaching for that ancient power, Iain becomes overtaken by a darkness beyond his control. What begins as an attempt to gain the strength he believes he needs turns into a curse of eternal winter upon the land.
As Veridian begins to fall, Aurelion’s test is only beginning.
Cold Banishment is a story that challenges what it means to be merciful, and the strength behind it. There is a myriad of characters, angelic, demonic, human, elven, or otherwise, wrestling with this idea.
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