Leviathan… Nick Keller

You know when you see album artwork, and the amazingness of it alone forces you to listen to the music enclosed within it? I am a sucker for good album artwork, and more often than not, when a band has some really, really sick composition on its album cover, it makes me like their music more. Couple this with my passion for fantasy artwork, and Nick Keller hits my art spot! His highly detailed oil paintings transport me into a world whipped with ferocious winds that whirl around me and fill me with a delicious dread. He manages to create a sense of sharpness with soft lines, a myriad of colors all blending together but still distinct, almost as if I am seeing through a fog that cuts me. He envisions giants who descend upon the earth, their very size and power malice alone, but their intentions with what awaits them on earth are unclear. They are full of fire and blinding light, and could crush us with one small movement, but they seem to exist without regard for us who look upon them. His subjects seem like extensions of the natural world, while at the same time they are extraterrestrial, but they grow out of flame and mountain and cloud and ocean and tree, and more a part of this earth than anything that lives and dies on it. His paintings tell stories that are too vast for words. No wonder this Wellington, NZ based artist was chosen to do conceptual artwork for The Hobbit, he is actually capable of capturing in images the complexity of Tolkien’s texts. Keller is also the artist behind covers for NZ bands Beastwars and Heresiarch. Enter his worlds at your own risk below…