Contains mild nudity, but since there seemed to be a consensus in the past, that a bare breast in art is no big deal, I'll do without the safety tag. Should that bother you however, please click here real quick!

Wondering if it is a coincidence that Frank Zappa's "Catholic Girls" is playing as I'm starting to write this post about a chapter of the "Book of Revelation". Well, a picture actually, about one of the figures, "Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and Abominations of the Earth."

It was a project for an exhibition where the artists were supposed to paint something from the "Apocalypse of John". For those who know me, it won't come as a big surprise, that I was looking for a way to get some high heels into the painting and thus my theme was clear pretty quick. Plus I liked the idea of painting that monster with all the heads and horns she was sitting on. At first I wanted to do it in old masters egg tempera/oil mixed media..

I had already put a lot of work in the underpainting, but I just wasn't happy with it. Working on that first version sparked a lot of new thoughts and new angles of approach. So, two weeks into the project, I completely changed my mind and decided to restart, doing it in my special hinterglass technique in graphite pencil, watercolor and oil.

The first step is always the pencil drawing. Its reversed, as the glass will be turned around, once the painting is finished and it is the seen from the other side

After that, a first layer of watercolor was added for the overall mood

Finally the painting is finished with a number of thin oil glazes. As you can see, I completely changed my first design. When I grew up in cold war Europe, the nuclear destruction of the planet was my vision of the apocalypse and so I made the "animal" in the shape of the mushroom cloud.

I still tried to add all the elements described in the book, but I also added my own thoughts. Babylon's hair is braided into two horns, illustrating her connection with the devil. Just like her inside is fire, as one can see in her eyes and mouth.

In Tarot the card "XV - the Devil" is related to the Hebrew letter Ayin and I used it as the symbol for the devil behind the figure. If you look closely though, you will also see a cross painted over it, showing the triumph of the "lamb" over the evil forces

For the frame I used a part of a vintage frame I found once and combined it with a part that I built