Roger Dean: Dragon's Garden

Alfonso Miguel Sánchez says:
desde España, Roger Dean es un estupendo ilustrador que sumerge al espectador en un mundo fantástico y cautivador.

Rick Wolff says:
At the risk of getting too personal, I will wager that Roger Dean has done far fewer drugs than his average client, even when such exploits were fashionable. An artist just can't access the deep recesses of his imagination so consistently, resonating in the mind of the non-drug-induced spectator (me) so profoundly, without knowing and feeling exactly what he is doing, his brain firing on all eight cylinders, as it were. If it refutes the stereotype, so be it. Screw the stereotypes.
Of course, if I'm wrong, I hope I haven't embarrassed anybody too badly. But I bet I'm right.

Tamsin Mellor says:
Roger, you are an amazing artist. I only discovered your work a few months ago on some postcards my mum gave me before I came to university - they now have pride of place on my wall for all the world to see! Your paintings capture my imagination, which is always full of dragons and demons, and now you have inspired me in my work. I'm sitting here with a postcard of your painting 'Tsunami' in front of me - it is my inspiration for a project we are doing to design 'The Tempest'. I thank you, Roger, for bringing joy into my work, life and soul.

Rachel says:
Excellant piece of work here i think it is wonderful bravo! A great help to my gcse coursework about your designs. Thankyou.

David Pinkerton says:
This work is absolutely amazing! It has a wonderful dreamlike quality. Once again Roger has scored a major triumph! Absolutely stunning!!

Jack says:
Unbelievable! Roger's painting are a great inspiration for my recent project. All work is curiously evocative, with great imagination. Well done!!

Egil Bokn says:
I just got home with "the Mist" copy 62 and I must say it looks fantastic on my wall. Thank you Roger Dean for being there on Saturday 8th at the Kensington Hilton. E.Bokn, Norway

Troy L. Edelmayer says:
Definitely one of my favorite artist, trying to capture the same moving scenery in 3D. This would be the first I have seen of this work and I think no matter what it is that you have or will do I will always be inspired by your talents.

kancil says:
this picture is beautiful, i like it

Tony diaz de rivera says:
Every time I see a Roger Dean art, I always end up buying the cd. It seems to characterize the band and its content. It's definitely majestic, artistic and progressive the same way the music is since I'm a prog rock listener. It's amazing Roger can grasp the music's concept through his drawings.

David Mc Diarmid [sculptor] says:
I sent pink floyd music about architecture i can understand why you have used organic forms to creat moods. I think your paintings are fine and its good to see you are now putting paint onto your brush, I have alwas liked you work and need to thank you as the Yes paintings introduced me to art work

giuliano says:
you are the best...! you are the fantasy of life

Yanuly Sanson says:
Dragon's Garden really showcases Roger's "new" style. More free flowing and if I'm allowed to say it, less perfect, but more real. Being it so, speaks volumes of Roger's skills as able to adapt, change, but keeping the same level of quality and imagination. The "chinese ink" mountains harken to earlier works both his and of old chinese masters.

Chris Seybolt says:
I have always been fascinated with the art rendered on Chinese scrolls of the incredible landscapes of such areas as the Li River Valley. The natural combination of mists and abrupt terrain create a mythical atmosphere in a very real place. Roger does a great job of capturing this ancient Eastern art form and making it his adding color schemes and creatures that are unmistakeably Dean.

Nick Reed says:
Roger Dean seems to have a way of turning a dreams sequence into reality on paper and I love his work.

Chaz Sutherland says:
I don't believe that art can be considered good or bad, merely, the viewer can only take a stance as to whether or not he or she likes it or not. With this mentality I found that the highest compliment that can be issued is one based on inspiration, and you Mr. Dean have truly created works that have inspired me. Thank you, Chaz Sutherland

Timothy Drenkhahn says:
I have enjoyed Roger's work since the mid 70's from the work with Yes, Uriah Heap as well as a book with back then I thought was outstanding a real talented individual. Thanks for the enjoyment.

Hugo Escobedo Mejía says:
Dragon´s garden is a great example of how dragons should be if they were real. Here in México I took this picure and showed it to my students, they were suprised by the beauty and strength of the dragon. These 3 images have a kind of misty halo, which impressed my boys and me of course. I teach them how to paint landscapes and bests, such as Smaug from Tolkien´s Hobbit or the great Rivendell. Fantasy and dreams are real with Roger Dean, I always use his work as an example of how the extrordinary can be painted on a canvas. I want to congratulate the artist of this great site, and hope to see more of this magnifiscent work. Here in México we enjoy it very much. Congrats....
Hugo Escobedo Méjía Tec de Monterrey

Jasper Joppe Greers says:
When I saw Dragon's Garden for the first time, I wondered if it really would be Roger who did this painting. I had not seen an image from roger yet where the background was completely covered with branches and trees. Gone is the background blend! The wonderful but unseen thing to me about this painting is the way Roger has painted the dragon between the branches. Most of the time you can divide a RD image into several stages like Freya's Castle, where you can see that he did the background first, another item on top of that, and a darker item at the very front. But this picture is a painting done back and front in one effort. Now this seems to be a slight different when we see the images done as a fine art print. Some branches seem to lose their colour, as if they are very ill or at least dead! Of course there is always a big difference in colours if you see a fine art print in reality or on the web. Another thing to me is that the artist allows himself to make some different versions of an image, and when we see the second version of it, it seems to be the same age as Asia Aura! Is this coïncidental or not? By the way, a couple of months ago you could see a picture of Roger at the printers, and you could see from the buckets of ink which colour was used for wat part of the image... Anyway, the dragon is by far the best painted dragon ever done by Roger. It really shows the painting skills of Roger and how he integrated the Dragon into the background. He has done several dragons in the past of course, but i.e. compared to the animal on the Red Dragon Image (used on Not Necessarily Acoustic - Steve Howe) the Red Dragon was done clearly apart from its background, and made a strange appearance on the painting to me, as if the dragon and the background were not related to each other. Somehow it felt that the dragon could be used also on another background for another image, something he actually did with the Morning Dragon which was also used on the header of Magnetic Storm, and a calendar also, but I'm not sure. Yes, a true mystical image that questions you how this world would go further to the left and right of the image.
See ya next month!
Jasper Joppe Geers

Jaime Karl Hudson says:
Mist Dragon and Sunrise Dragon I like even better than the original. These dragons look very much 'at home' and are very confident/majestic.
(I wish Roger a Happy B-Day the 31st!)

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