Barlowe's Inferno

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Beelzebub’s Keep – (unpublished – acrylic on Gessoboard) – There is no single construct in Hell that typifies the monolithic evil of its rulers more than this enormous edifice.

his depictions of both the grandeur and the horror of Hell even surpass his original paintings and drawings. While this painting represents a semi-intelligent individual, there must be countless Abyssals that are mere animals. Not since John Milton’s Paradise Lost have we seen such a vivid and well-informed account of infernal doings. The devil is in the details and it took quite some time to work out all of the motifs from a design standpoint.

So heavy that they need supernatural augmentation to move, they are lumbering, building-crushing tanks capable of chewing their way through soul-bricks and natural stone alike. In 1971, Macmillan published "The Dragon Hoard," another children's book, which was followed by "Animal Castle" and "Princess Hynchatti and Other Stories" in 1972. For a variety of reasons I’d rather not elaborate upon here, I decided to separate this entity visually from all of the other demons in Hell and go with a somewhat more abstract form. This party is fortunate in having a few important Demons Minor amongst their number and would probably be safe enough in any short journey within their own kingdom. After spending months completing very complex, detailed paintings I tend to gravitate towards simpler, more iconic compositions.

Unless they are escorted by significant numbers of armed demons they are frequently lost without a trace. The inspiration for this painting is fairly obvious: all of those great Flemish paintings of medical examinations, of doctors gathered around splayed-out corpses. Much as I did with EXPEDITION, I plan to do a series of wildlife paintings focusing on the fauna of Hell.

I see them as fierce fighters, tribal and semi-nomadic, hunting Abyssals and waging a constant battle against not only the extreme elements of the Wastes but, also, the demons and souls.

This digital paint-sketch was created after I spent some serious time with the Painter program on Paradise Lost. Lee was looking for a British publisher for her book "The Birthgrave," but was denied at every House she went.In that painting, the demon is seated upon a mount that is entirely composed of mashed-together souls, their multiple legs providing the locomotion. The only solution that satisfied my world’s internal logic was to riff on the concept behind Agares’ steed as depicted in the INFERNO book.

The notion of a pre-existing fauna indigenous to Hell before the demons arrived opens up a whole line of conjecture. Long one of my white whales, I finally acquired a copy of the autographed, slipcased, 250-copy limited run.

Equipped with two massive bone-hammers and a heavy chin-blade these greatly enlarged souls are the once-cruel rulers of Asian empires transformed by the Demon Major Yen Wang to suit his needs.