Sphinx 1984

Boris Vallejo conjured this crimson Sphinx, probably using oil or acrylic, sometime around 1984. Immediately, I'm drawn to the texture. Vallejo has this way of rendering flesh and fur as if it’s been polished; smooth, but with the implication of a rougher surface just beneath. Look at the way the red of the background bleeds into the lion's mane, it's like fire and, somehow, soft as velvet. It's wild how he makes the impossible seem real. Then there's that tangled tree above, stark and barren against the blazing red. It feels like a cage, or maybe a crown, for this creature. Vallejo reminds me a bit of Frank Frazetta, another master of heroic fantasy, but Vallejo leans more into a kind of hyper-realism that's both captivating and unsettling. What’s cool about art is, it doesn't have to make sense; it just has to make you feel something, right?