The imagery of the Book of Revelation has been a fruitful source of inspiration for American folk artists since the early nineteenth century, but the apocalyptic paintings of William Blayney stand out for their sense of drama and urgency. Born in Claysville, Pennsylvania, the artist originally worked as an automobile mechanic but eventually became a full-time Pentecostal preacher with a roadside ministry in Oklahoma.

As this two-sided painting reveals, Blayney accepted the ideas of dispensationalism, an interpretive approach to the Bible that divides human history into successive ages, or dispensations. It relates specific historic events to biblical prophecies—the course of ancient empires, the waging of great wars, the occurrence of exceptional natural phenomena. Dispensationalism also emphasizes the imminence of the Second Coming of Christ and the dawning of the Millennium. It is ironic that Blayney, who preached an end-time message, should have been so obsessively concerned with protecting the rights to his paintings. As illustrated here, each work is replete with the artist’s repeated copyright, as well as trademark notices and other reservations of his rights.

Blayney’s fantastic landscapes are inhabited by the strange beasts and prophesying angels of the Book of Revelation, a visionary work traditionally attributed to the Apostle John and the final book of the New Testament. Spiritual Powers in the Nation, for example, features the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (Rev. 6), again as described in the biblical verse. Each rider sits on a horse of a different color, including a pale horse: And I looked, and beheld a pale horse: and his name was Death and Hell followed with him” (Rev. 6:8). The reverse side of the painting is dominated by the beast described in Revelation 13:1, which the artist renders faithfully: “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns.”

Although Blayney’s paintings are crowded with strong, colorful images and lengthy texts, they are exceedingly well composed, emphasizing the theatrical quality of the Book of Revelation’s visionary themes. Blayney effectively captures the catastrophic flow of the biblical narrative in each of these works, providing a fitting complement to his doomsday preaching. In utilizing his paintings to help listeners understand his interpretation of the complicated end-time chronology of the Book of Revelation and other apocalyptic texts, Blayney followed a tradition with deep roots in American religious history.

Gerard C. Wertkin, "Spiritual Powers in the Nation," in Stacy C. Hollander, American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 395.