When painting out-of-doors, there are many hazards to an impending masterpiece that artists resign themselves as having to put up with- wind, rain, and curious onlookers to name a few. However, as Ella the Monsterette set up her easel in a breezy back-alley in Rome, the telltale ruffling of feathers alerted her to a much more insidious danger- the hazard of perching pigeons above. Ella had suffered the harsh critiques of pigeons marring her other canvases, and she knew this would not do. The rotund little monster picked up her art materials and shuffled off to the end of the alley, where the light was best and the avian dangers scarce.
Soon enough, the pigeons followed her, hoping for scraps. As the wind picked up, smallclothes and leaves flying through the air, Ella sighed. Perhaps her masterpiece could wait another day.
Although many of the magnificent ancient Roman statues were originally brightly painted, I've kept them plain here to emphasise their contrast with their attacker. Other artistic liberties were freely taken, despite me having access to a Latin-reading, university-educated Ancient Rome know-it-all while sketching this work.
Edward and Eloise were tickled pink. They’d just passed their Artist Test with flying colours, and were the proud owners of slick new artistic licences. Their unlicensed friends would be green with envy as Eloise and Edward painted the town red. Or blue, purple, striped, polkadot....
Smugly grinning, the pompous Paint Police watched from a distance, already scribbling fines for the newlyweds' outrageous use of colour and seriously negative space. Recently-licenced artists usually went overboard the moment the laminated scrap of plastic reached their trembling hands.
"...Another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads." -Revelations 12:3
"...I saw an angel coming out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years." -Revelations 20:1-2
Rahab was a chaos dragon in ancient literature who was identified with Egypt in the Old Testament of the Bible.