Raising the Dead - Surreal Landscape Painting dark angels The mystic is advised not

The mystic is advised not to be fooled if it looks like the water is rushing past--it is really the mystic who is rising

This town is dark beneath a crescent moon

I made both the upper and lower areas the same color to indicate that there is no judgment in being in either place (or in staying in the middle area)

and then shallower until it is melded into the trunk's shape

The original oil painting is 16 x 20"/41 x 51cm on cotton canvas with a traditional 7/8"/2cm profile

Raising the Dead - Surreal Landscape Painting dark angels The mystic is advised notI knew as soon as I looked at the central black shape in this painting that it would have to do with the Underworld. I saw the shapes of those involved in rituals to raise the dead assembling in a circle on the left and conjuring an angel a dark one to guide dead souls. I knew I wanted some souls, though, to be climbing out of the Underworld on their own; these are at the left end of the entrance to the Pit. The black figures on the right might be