ARTISTS OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS

Hound of Tindolas by Toren Atkinson

ARTISTS OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS: TOREN ATKINSON (Nightscapes)

Toren's Official Site

"Elder 39" by Simon Barber

ARTISTS OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS: SIMON BARBER (Nightscapes)

Mayan Vase Parade by Stanley C. Sargent

ARTISTS OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS: STANLEY SARGENT (Nightscapes)

Stanley's Official Site

ARTISTS OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS:

A. S. MOORE

by G. W. Thomas

Anita S. Moore was born December 29, 1961 in Memphis, TN. This was the first of many hops which took her to six states and more schools than there are grades. She is an eighteen resident of the state of Georgia. She has made Dalton her home for the past fifteen years.

Her paintings of Lovecraftian horror are moody, impressionistic visions of lost worlds and elder monsters. Her best work reminds me of John Schoenherr, who painted the original Dune paintings. While the Impressionists have left their mark on Moore, her subject matter in this genre is dark and haunting. Few other Mythos artists have captured the landscape of dreams as well as A. S. Moore.
Like many artists, Anita did not learn her craft in an art or tech school but is self taught and developed as her need or desires demanded.

"I have always enjoyed drawing. I had the usual artistic opportunities in elementary through middle school. In high school #1 (Ensley High in Birmingham, Alabama) I took a class in which I was given manila paper (news print) and crayons by a "teacher" who slept the entire class almost every day. The people I shared a table with asked me how to use some of the real materials, such as quills and bottles of ink, we eventually were given. We shared ideas and learned from each other.

"Two years later, at high school #2 (Opelika, Alabama), I had a REAL art teacher. Her last name was Jordon. She was teaching right brain technique in 1978-79. I got the bulk of the basics from this one source. And I learned to pay attention to any artist I could find opportunity to observe. My senior year I had a short class in oil and still life from a local library."

Out of high school, Anita still pursued her art. "After that I kept up studying on my own. I had a supportive family who gave me space to make a mess. And there was my Aunt Sherry who sent me books. Walter Foster technique books, "Drawing the Head and Figure", "The Artist's Handbook" and many other which provided valuable instruction.

"After about 1981 or so I had very little time to paint and after 1988 I had no time at all. So there is a ten year gap until I was able to find time from being a Mom and wife and funds to purchase materials to get my hands into the paint again.

"When I began again, I had decided to try my hand at acrylics. Having run role-playing game for many years and having a great fondness for the works of HPL, the subject matter was ready in my mind. I had been describing these creatures to gamers for almost a decade so why not realize these visions? "Nyarlathotep" was only the second painting I did. And I have been at it ever since. (A side note: Anita just spent two weeks working on the original of "Nyarlathotep". "I have learned so much in the past two years that I was able to bring it to a 'finished' state. The repainted piece may be seen neighboring the original on The Gates of Yith.)
"A friend, Kenneth Waters, who introduced me to acrylics, offered instruction on "the physics of color". I found my instincts about color were almost dead-on but Kenny shared the benefits of his brushes with "formal" art education, imparting theory and technique learned from some instructors but more from other artists. Where I was guessing almost right, I began to see the 'whys' of how colors work together in light and shadow. And I studied light... am still studying light, and color, and form and technique and composition. Always a student. There are always new things to learn."

With many years of self-driven experience, Anita has tried many different media. "I have worked with oil, pen and ink, pastels, and pencil. I have developed a great fondness for acrylics and think I have found the medium I prefer. But I am not beyond painting oil onto acrylic, or using thinned acrylic on ink work. I think it is important to be well versed in many mediums and work on a variety of surfaces: paper, canvas (stretched and board) illustration board, masonite, lead miniatures."

Anita's influences are many and varied, some surprising for a Mythos artist or an oil painter. "For a while I had this deep infatuation with Dali... but then who didn't. William Alexander was the first televised artist I ever watched on a regular basis. I loved the illustrations in all my favorite children's books: John Teniel ("Alice's Adventure"... and "Through the Looking Glass") and John R. Neil who illustrated all but the first of the Oz books. Such great films as "The Agony and The Ecstasy" and "Lust for Life" introduced me early on to the great masters. A wonderful little feature by Chuck Jones, "Gay Purrie" highlighted all the masters of the turn of this century as a lovely country kitty was painted by Toulouse, Picasso, Monet and others. Rebels! Impressionists. They knew their stuff about color. I spent hours browsing through books and wandering the Birmingham museum whenever mom would take me to work with her. (It was only two blocks away and cost a buck or two for all the great art I wanted to lose myself in."

Of more modern choices she picks: "comic artists, Byrne, Adams, Frank Miller, Bill Seinkeiwich and Alex Ross. The science fiction and fantasy works of Don Maitz, Michael Whelan and H. R. Geiger are always amazing to experience. I recently rediscovered Chesley Bonstell (Conquest of Space) and Vincent deFate. Wow! Darryl Elliot is the most recent and the strongest influence of pencil. He is hard to equal or exceed in quality and cleanness of execution, but easy to look to for interesting technique and pointers. Darryl is always ready to answer questions about how he achieves his effects and photographic finish.

"I find the many of the older science fiction and science factual artists have the better perception and knowledge of the lot, however. There are some amazing and talented illustrators in the world today but it would seem not so many as before are trained in the classical methods and forms. I did find two in the same place this past year at a Chattanooga convention art show. David Mathews, who is fond of the sixteenth century portraiture, and the Russian fantasist Lubov. Lubov studied in Russia and one of the three schools in America where one may gain classical training of the European masters."

Why is Anita interested in the Mythos as a subject matter...especially since her initial interest was in the classics? "As a kid, and a child of television, I watched all the Hammer Horror I could tune in on three channels. Vampires (Lugosi and Lee), Monsters (the Creature, the Hunchback and The Thing), Godzilla (Satsumo), King Kong (Willis O'Brien), Werewolves (Lon Chaney Jr.) and Vincent Price! I read Poe and any ghost stories I could find. Everything George Pal produced and Ray Harryhausen animated was an instant hit with me as well. Lovecraft didn't enter into the picture (no pun intended) until I was about 16 or so. A volume of "The Tomb and Other Tales" had come to me from someone who found it in a drawer of a furnished dive. John Holmes cover art! I had never seen anything like it. I studied the splitting head and the blood red bats swarming from it. Then I began to read. Hoping for the same effect from the literature within. Memories to savor, I tell you. Poe was manipulative but a master of psychological dilemma. But HP.. oh, my! The atmosphere, the feel, wonderful writing. I never so much as
sketched the Mythos until a year and a half ago, except to lend solidity to a monstrous description during a game session. I suppose I was saving up?"

When asked what parts of the Mythos do you like to draw the best, I was surprised by Anita's answer. Her Mythos landscapes are some of the best around, but she said, "The critter parts... Actually I like the hard to define. I have wanted to do something along the lines of Eric Zahn's fiddler. I am by no means a 'purist' when it comes to appreciating the Mythos as genre of horror. You may have notice such pieces as "Notebook Found in and Abandoned House" (Bloch), "Y'golanak's Feasting" and "The Mines of Yuggoth" (Campbell). Caricatures of Bloch, Long, and Derleth appear with HPL in "The Sleep Over."

"I suppose I try for the strong emotion and the effect of setting of some of the stories, like "The Outsider", rather than the gore of some modern film makers and authors. I like the tension of a good horror tale as opposed to the sticky grossness of ooooh... Steven King, say."

When labeled a horror artist she replies, "I actually do not consider myself a horror artist. But that is only because I don't like to limit myself to one genre. There are so many things imagined and real and never enough time in the day to get them all onto a surface of some kind. My goal as an artists currently working largely in the horror genre is to get published and make enough money to buy more paint. Anything after that is sauce for the goose. I would like to make a living with a paint brush in my hand, but it is difficult to do when only artists truly comprehend the craft and what it takes to put a bit of the soul on a canvas for the world to criticize. I live in an area where the inhabitants are stuck in a permanent "yard sale" mentality.

"As an artist in general I want to mature my work. There is a lot I have learned and yet it is only the tip of a great store of the wealth of art knowledge I do not know but look for and am determined to learn. Quality, beauty, style, passion. These are my goals.

This article origninally appeared in Nightscapes.