Firedrake, Shooting Star, Meteorite, Aereolite

I've settled on the title "Shooting Star" because I feel it's the most accessible, even though I truly love the esoteric names better.

Original painted illustration 9" x 12" acrylic on acid free paper.

You can see the listing Here at My Good Babushka.

Firedrake, Shooting Star, Meteor

The rather long, gangly man is reaching out of his impossibly small house towards the celestial phenomenon, which doesn't seem to notice him, as is proper for so heavenly a being. They don't consort with low, terrestrial things, after all. I like the idea that the house is small and barely sufficient, that the man is long and stretching out, and striving. That's what learning is about, and that's how learning feels. I filled the foreground with piles of hydrangea. Their blue and purple color makes me think of night.

Firedrake, Aereolite, Shooting Star

Working on my Firedrake, Meteor, or Shooting Star painting. I wanted the meteor to be represented as a sentient being, along the order of medieval saints. Looking upward, somewhat disinterested, concerned only with things celestial. I gave it two pupils to get a nice otherworldly effect. Doing that reminded me of the double vision cast iron bottle openers I sometimes see at antique and flea markets. If you haven't seen any, look one up. They're often sold on Ebay.

Firedrake

Painting continues on my Firedrake illustration. A dramatization of an encounter with a meteorite when such things were misunderstood. I am trying to give my shooting star an ethereal and disinterested countenance, something like the face of a saint in a medieval painting.

Firedrakes, Aereolites, Meteorites

Preparing a sketch for painting. An encounter in mythical medieval times with the wondrous meteorite. Then it was called "spittle of the stars" and they believed it left a jelly-like viscous material in fields. Some have theorized that this substance was just rotten potatoes mistaken for fallen or "shot stars". It must have been a strange time to be alive.