26 September 2012

The Lost Tarot Cards of Dominic Murphy

Autumn has arrived with its cold wet grey days and early evenings so it's time to present some decks that fit the feeling one gets from all this time of the year.
The The Lost Tarot Cards by British artist Dominic Murphy positions itself at the darker side of the autumn/end of summer spectrum (and although Halloween is still a month away this deck would be perfect for that) , no surprise knowing that the artist describes the inspiration to become a painter (seeing Bacon's portrait of pope Innocent) as "Francis Bacon ruined my life"

Murphy a prolific artist who also created some card decks before has now turned his attention to the tarot, his extended tarot deck (the majors plus 'lost cards' of the artist own imagination)  is executed in his own style that I'd call dark surrealism and shows the art of a schooled accomplished artist.  Showcasing lot's of sculls, alchemical & occult symbology and grim/severe facial expressions this is not a deck made to make you smile or feel better,  but one of those deck that feel magical and bizarre in a 'good way'.

The deck presents itself as a Major Arcana + Oracle deck, so on the one part the artst had he structure he had to follow for the first 22 cards, but could let his imagination run wild in any direction it wanted for the rest of the deck, and Mr Murphy sure has an interesting imagination to say the least...

This 36 cards edition (the artist still works on some more cards, not a 78 but rather a 54 cards deck, in the same structure as now 22 majors + extra cards) was only printed in a very limited edition of 10 because 2 cards: The devil card and the Hesperus card where misprinted, namely with a to small white border.


You can get his artwork friom his ebay store or his Facebook shop and also look at his work at his website

Update: o coincidence the same day I post about this version of the deck the artist starts selling his completed deck on his eBay store! 



4 comments:

  1. wow! I love those cards!!!! For today's oracle card I got Beauty. Check out my blog at http://celestialgarden79.blogspot.com/
    I hope you like it and follow me

    Have a beautiful night

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  2. These cards are very useful near autumn season before the Halloween. I appreciate your writing skills and posting such a informative post Hope to see the next update soon.

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  3. Hello there, it's the first time that I have visited your site and after my first reading of your article "The Lost Tarot Cards of Dominic Murphy " I must say that you've done a fantastic job. I will certainly dig it and personally recommend to my friends. I am sure they'll be benefited from this site.

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  4. I have never seen those kinds of tarot cards before. Are you psychic? I feel that clairvoyant perception and the tarot cards go well together.

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