Reverend William A. Blayney

William A. Blayney was born in Western Pennsylvania at Claysville on December 21, 1918. He had a natural talent for drawing at a grade school and drew cartoon-like figures and sayings on bomber planes while serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. Honorably discharged in 1945, Blayney drove heavy equipment vehicles and ran an auto body and engine repair shop.

In the late 1950's, Blayney became increasingly interested in studying the Bible and attended Bible meetings conducted by local TV evangelist Kathryn Kuhlman. Blayney suddenly started to paint in 1957, at the same time that he became immersed in the Bible. He felt he had a mission to preach, he began to paint the intense religious works which express his concern with the decline of morals in the world. His paintings express the redemptive power of God as revealed by the Hebrew prophet Daniel while held captive in Babylon in the Old Testament and of the Holy Trinity in the New Testament's book of Revelations. He was ordained in 1969 in the Pentecostal Ministry by the laying on of hands. When Blayney died in 1985, he left a trailer full of paintings to his brother.

Painting: Pagan Roman Kingdom, 1961
oil on canvas board
17.5" X 23.5"