Rev. William Alvin Blayney

1917 - 1985

At school in Claysville, Pennsylvania, William Alvin Blayney displayed a natural talent for drawing. While serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, he painted cartoon-like figures on the side of bombers. In the 1950s, he worked repairing cars. Later, when he was in his forties, Blayney underwent a profound religious conversion; he abandoned his wife and his business as a motor mechanic to become a Pentecostal preacher, and moved to Oklahoma. Living in a small trailer, with another as his studio, he began to paint in order to illustrate the sermons he delivered in his roadside ministry. He believed that his painting and preaching fulfilled a biblical prophecy. Blayney related predictions in the Bible books Daniel and Revelation to actual historic events, routinely stressed the need for repentance and proclaimed the imminent, second coming of Jesus Christ. His richly colored paintings, often incorporating biblical citations, vividly illustrate Bible texts. In them, strange beasts and fantastic landscapes abound. Blayney enjoyed seeing his art in museums but he was obsessed with copyright control. The copyright symbol often appears in his pictures. Upon his death Blayney left a trailer full of paintings to his brother. ¹