Tag: Art and artists

Tapestry

Tapestry designed by Narnia illustrator Pauline Baynes for Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis. It was part of a series that took 40 years to stitch, and the subject of recent controversy.

Beruna

Liberating the River God, by Justine Sweet. Concept Art for the 2008 movie Prince Caspian. But… there was nothing in the text about a waterfall at Beruna. And surely, when Aslan did this, it was clear, sunny day … ?  

Stone Knife and Stone Table

Even in contemporary children’s and YA books (as of 2020, when I am writing this) it’s hard to think of a more shocking passage than the White Witch killing Aslan at the Stone Table. Four Hags, holding four torches, stood at the corners of the Table. The Witch bared her arms as she had bared …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday
8/19/20: Narnia XII

The Magician’s Nephew ranks third (tied with The Horse and His Boy) as my Chronicles favorite for the Weird Tales awesomeness that is Charn. As I wrote in The Wild Lands of the North, Lewis was more than a little influenced by the pulps (and the pulps influenced by Lord Dunsany and E. R. Eddison, …

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A Deeper Magic

Charming print of Aslan, Lucy, and Susan by artist Dave Quiggle.

The Many Faces of the White Witch – Part IV

Let’s finish this series about the White Witch with some odds and ends. First up, this depiction of Snow White’s evil queen by artist Colleen Doran. She’s holding up a bloody heart by a string. Though not Lewis’s character, she could very well be her, and the heart would be Edmund’s or Aslan’s. Next, a …

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Narnia Lacquer Box

I love the detail on this piece and how the story of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has been culturally translated. The artist drew on the imagery for the movie, not the book, as the polar bears and armored centaurs attest… as is High King Peter riding on his unicorn.

The Many Faces of the White Witch – Part I

The Icon The most iconic character (after Aslan the Lion, that is) of The Chronicles of Narnia is The White Witch, the villainess of both the first book and the sixth, and referred to in all the others. She’s a sorceress, a wicked queen, a petty spoilsport, a warrior general, and a femme fatale all …

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Louis Wain’s Aslan

This artist’s depiction of Aslan, with its eerie staring eyes, shares a disturbing similarity to the cat pictures of popular Victorian English artist Louis Wain. Wain is often cited in psychology textbooks as a classic case of how schizophrenia alters the afflicted’s sense of reality.    

Cair Paravel

Cair Paravel, Narnia’s royal castle, as depicted in a Pauline Baynes illustration from the original book, and in an artist’s concept for the movie. The movie version is larger and grander but keeps to the same outline.