Brad Barton, Artist

09/04/2026

Alone Against the Sea

Not every legend begins with a hero seeking adventure. Sometimes the adventure comes looking for you.

A lone Viking, a dragon-headed ship, and a sea that clearly has no intention of cooperating. This was another of my Seven Seas explorations—less about recreating a particular story and more about borrowing the visual language of Norse legend to create one of my own.

Sometimes mythology gives you the story. Sometimes it just gives you permission to invent one.

09/03/2026

The Woman in the Jade Dress wasn't actually wearing jade.

Her dress was bright blue—and we deliberately matched the makeup to it, knowing from the beginning that I'd be changing both in Photoshop to create the jade palette I wanted for Chalchiuhtlicue.

That's an important part of creative portraiture: not everything has to be finished when you press the shutter. Sometimes you're photographing the pieces you need to build the image you've already imagined.

09/02/2026

The sea has never been obligated to make its monsters frightening.

For this Seven Seas portrait, the tentacles gave us the creature—but the expression gave us the character. Mischievous, strange, and perhaps just a little too pleased that you've wandered into her part of the ocean.

Creating a character is more than deciding what they look like. You have to decide who they are.

09/01/2026

Some legends come with a warning: don't follow the song.

This Seven Seas portrait was inspired by the classic siren—beautiful, dangerous, and waiting at the water's edge for someone foolish enough to come closer.

Old myths endure because they leave room for us to imagine them again. The story may be ancient. The picture doesn't have to be.

Seven Seas and Beautiful Monsters are both on sale for $10 through the end of the year (normally $25): http://woolypelican.com/books

08/31/2026

Even the gods have to weather the storm.

Inspired by Poseidon, this Seven Seas portrait started with one of the oldest connections between water and mythology: the sea as something powerful, unpredictable, and very much alive.

Mythology gives us the raw material. Imagination lets us decide what to do with it.

08/30/2026

There is power in the sea—and in the stories we have told about it for thousands of years.

For this Seven Seas portrait, the idea was less about standing in the water and more about becoming part of it: summoning it, shaping it, letting the waves become an extension of the character herself.

The fun begins when the theme stops being a limitation and starts becoming a question.

08/29/2026

Not every story of the water is about beauty or power. Some are warnings.

This Seven Seas portrait was inspired by La Llorona—the Weeping Woman, doomed to wander near the water searching for the children she lost.

Folklore is fertile ground for creativity. A few pieces of an old story can be enough to start building an entirely new image.

Seven Seas and Beautiful Monsters are both on sale for $10 through the end of the year (normally $25): http://woolypelican.com/books

08/28/2026

What if the water itself became the character?

For this Seven Seas portrait, I wanted her to feel less like someone standing in the sea and more like something made from it—light, color, energy, and water all becoming part of the same creature.

Sometimes the best way to explore a theme is to stop asking what belongs in it and start asking what it could become.

06/29/2026

Solitude Standing
Available at my Fine Art America
https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/4-brad-barton

06/26/2026