Dragon Slayer

Description

A weary warrior stands over the slain dragon.  All her companions on this quest had fallen in battle.  Only she remains, seeing the results of her work.  She should feel happy, but the loss was so great that the sadness now battled with the relief that the job was done.  A hollow victory, when the burying of the dead was the reward.

This image was painted after great turbulence in the artist’s life, a way for her to express being a survivor and the feeling that it too was at times felt like a hollow victory.  She had dreamed of painting it before she ever put paint to canvas, using thick oils underneath, creating the image in black and white.  Then she did a thin wash of the transparent red over the thick paint.  Over time the thin paint began to crack making the scales look all the more realistic with the color beneath shining through.