If you are into fantasy art, I have no doubt that you are familiar with PetarMeseldzija and his Steel Bashaw painting series. They have been feature in at least the last few Spectrum annuals. This is the 9th one in his series and has an awful lot of things to talk about contained in it. Petar seems to use a trompe l’oiel framework in a number of his paintings which to me adds a definite fairytale quality to the presentation of the image. As I sit here looking at this image, I think to myself “I really love his horses.” THis horse looks as if it is ready to jump right off the page onto my desk. Its mane and tail are flowing, head down, legs out stretched. The amount of movement captured here is uncanny. The angle of the horses body lines up with the angle of the ground below creating and arrow head that points to the left and back to the imminent threat which draws Steel’s gaze. The tree is amazingly organic, with branches that contain what appear to be eyes, snake heads and claws (at least in my imagination). Petar has an amazing ability to render fabric as well, the cape the dress flowing in the wind, bending, twisting, curving. His neutralized clouds push nicely into the background help his horse to push forward for that jumping off the page feeling I just mentioned. His colors are saturate, yet not so much as to be un-lifelike, or unreal. And if that wasn’t enough, we have a scare orc, ogre, morlock to threaten us from a different direction adding yet more complexity and interest to this piece. I highly recommend visiting Petar’s website as the rest of his work is just as striking.