Original Science Fiction Artwork, Pt. 4

New additions to the Attic's collection of original science fiction art! For those who're interested, here are Parts 1, 2, and 3.

1. "Tales of Time and Space," by Tom Nachreiner. 21" x 26". 1976. Gouache on board.



Truth is, I don't know a hell of a lot about Tom Nachreiner. He seems to have done a lot of work outside of the science fiction genre; in fact, there's no listing of him in Jane Frank's Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists of the Twentieth Century, the premier guide to genre artists. Strange. Oh well. I like a good mystery.

The painting was done as the cover for an anthology published in 1976 by Golden Press called Tales of Time and Space. It's a great piece of Seventies sf art; it's organic and fluid and strange, with bold colors and  a trippy series of images pulled directly from the stories themselves. A little later than I tend to collect, but there's just no denying the quality of the painting. Hey, older, newer -- cool is cool!




Two close up details of the painting.

What's particularly fascinating is that the painting came with the book cover's mechanical -- the package of sheets used to paste up cover elements like the title, publisher, book description, etc. I also received at copy of the book straight from the printer's files. Taken together, these pieces help illustrate the process by which a painting becomes a book cover. As a book collector, this is exactly the kind of thing that sends me over the moon.


The outer cover of the package containing the cover's mechanical. The letter taped to the front is the job order, and lists what elements will be delivered by the printer. 


The first layer of the mechanical. Tissue is laid down and on it is written various color guides.


The next layer down is an acetate overlay. The cover's text is laid down here, all carefully within the safety margins. 


The cover itself. This is a file copy, and the handwritten notes are from the printer.

Now, if I can just figure out how to display it all...

The Space Toy Artwork of Steven Skollar

If you're in New York City this weekend, I highly recommend heading over to SoHo's Arcadia Gallery to check out the latest exhibition of paintings by artist Steven Skollar. His focus is on (mostly) vintage toys -- robots, ray guns, flying saucers, and other odds and ends. Yep, all the stuff we love!


Painting © Steven Skollar. Used with permission.

His paintings evoke the masters of prior centuries, with a very formal approach to lighting and composition. But this juxtaposes wonderfully with his pop culture subject matter, and the end result is something forceful yet whimsical. If I had a fireplace and a mantel in my toy room, his are exactly the kinds of paintings I'd want to hang above it.

I had the pleasure of meeting Steven for the first time nearly a year ago, when he asked if he could use some of my robots and ray guns as models for his paintings. Of course I said yes, and Steven came over with a pretty interesting -- and top secret! -- photo rig which he used to snap shots of a number of different toys. (I wrote about the day here.) I'm thrilled to see that many of them made the final cut, and now grace the walls of a SoHo art gallery. And people say that toy collecting isn't respectable! Pshaw!


Painting © Steven Skollar. Used with permission.



Painting © Steven Skollar. Used with permission.



Painting © Steven Skollar. Used with permission.



Painting © Steven Skollar. Used with permission.


The exhibit runs until Sunday, November 26. Arcadia Gallery is located at 51 Greene Street, New York, NY. Their number is 212-965-1387, and their web site is www.arcadiafineart.com. Steven Skollar can be found online at www.stevenskollar.com

Electro Art Works On Display!

I'd like to give a shout out to sculptor Andy Hill, who has three of his Andy Bots included in an exhibit called "The Art of the Robot" at the Mulvane Art Museum in Topeka, Kansas.

Photo: Curator Carol Emert for the Mulvane Art Museum. Via Alphadrome.

Andy is a talented artist who creates fascinating toy robots out of found objects. His pieces are always fun and full of personality, and wrought with such skill that you can rarely tell where the individual parts originally came from. I've written about him, and have posted pics of my own Andy Bots, here.

"The Art of the Robot" runs through September 19, and includes works by 17 artists, including Hill, Clayton Bailey, Eric Joyner, Nemo Gould, and David Lipson. For more information, visit the Mulvane Art Museum's web site.

You can find out more about Andy Hill's work by visiting his site, Electro Art Works.

Original Science Fiction Artwork, Pt. 3

And now, the last of the three part series on the Attic's collection of original science fiction art. For those who are finding this via direct link, or who are just too darn lazy to scroll down, here are links to part one and part two.

1. "Far Horizon," by Morris Scott Dollens. 19" x 15". Ca. 1952. Casein on board.



Morris Scott Dollens was another of science fiction's most famous fan artists. He specialized in astronomical and interstellar landscapes, and produced hundreds such works over a more than 40 year career. He also experimented regularly with different painting techniques and stylistic approaches, often combining photos of models with paintings and other elements to create early multi-media montages. He's credited with publishing one of the earliest fanzines, and his work regularly appeared in both his own publications, and those of other fans (such as Roy A. Squires).

In 1952, Dollens published -- with Squires -- Approaching Infinity, a small chapbook of artwork and what can best be described as science fiction prose poems. While at times kind of cheesy, it nonetheless displays some of Dollens' earliest, most visually complicated art, pieces that combine his love of different media with his grand sense of wonder.

I've enjoyed Dollens' art for a while, so when "Far Horizon" came up for auction, I knew I wanted it. I also kept thinking that it looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. It wasn't until after I won the auction that I thought to check my copy of Approaching Infinity, which I've had in my vintage book collection for a while. Imagine my glee when I discovered that there, on the "About the Artist" page, was a thumbnail reproduction -- about one by two inches -- of "Far Horizon." While it wasn't part of the Approaching Infinity narrative, I guess Dollens liked it enough to use it on the page representing himself. Very cool!

From the George H. Scithers collection. Scithers was a science fiction fan, author, and Hugo award winning editor of both Amazing Stories, Asimov's Science Fiction, and various anthologies and collections. He worked with a who's who of authors and artists, and had a massive impact on the worlds of science fiction and fantasy. Scithers passed away on April 9, 2010.

2. "Approaching The Nebula," by Donald Simpson. 10" x 7". Ca. early 1970s. Watercolor airbrush and ink on board.



Don Simpson was a well known science fiction and astronomical artist who presented at many of the science fiction conventions in the 1970s. His work was often commissioned by George H. Scithers.

"Approaching the Nebula" was used as part of the cover art for L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp's A Science-Fiction Handbook, Revised, which Scithers published in 1975. According to the auction in which I purchased the painting, Simpson said that he used "a technique I did a lot of art with at that time, a mixture of spray paint and Prismacolor colored pencil. I didn't have an airbrush, so I bought cans of spray paint and used stencils (raised above the paper when I needed a soft edge) and various modulation techniques I figured out, such as delicate touches on the spray-can button, or a wire near the nozzle to make the stream turbulent for textural variation. The spaceship design was heavily influenced by the works of Tim Kirk." (Don Simpson, as told to Jane Frank)

Personally, I think the technique lends a lot of atmosphere to the painting, giving it a sense of loneliness that you'd expect if you were on a space ship zooming towards some far off nebula. Technique and theme coming together -- it makes for a perfect piece of art.

And that's all for the Attic's original art. Back to toys this week!



A FINAL NOTE


Much of the biographical information contained in this post comes from the be-all and end-all of books about science fiction and fantasy artists, Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary, by Jane Frank. It's an exhaustive study of the subject with hundreds of in-depth entries about pretty much everyone who's ever produced any sort of art within the genre. Highly recommended!

A nice review: http://www.sfsite.com/08a/ar301.htm

Copies are available at both Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

And if you're looking for science fiction artwork yourself, check out Jane Frank's online store, Worlds of Wonder (www.wow-art.com). She's been collecting and selling artwork for decades and really is one of the tops in the business.

Original Science Fiction Artwork, Pt. 2

Continuing with the previous post, here are four more pieces of original science fiction art. I'll be concluding this in part three, which I'll write once two final paintings show up in the mail. Ooooh, the anticipation! (Note: Part 3 is up!)

1. "World of Null-A," by Eddie Jones. 15" x 9". Ca. 1970. Gouache on board.


As I wrote here, England's Eddie Jones was a regular part of the science fiction art scene, and his work helped define how sf looked in the late Sixties and Seventies. His most famous series of paintings were for the covers of various Star Trek novels, many of which were written by author extraordinaire James Blish.

This painting was done for a European edition of A. E. Van Vogt's science fiction classic The World of Null-A. The art depicts the novel's hero standing in front of the giant, building sized computer that helps rule the world in the far future. All the detail, the bold colors, the moody atmosphere -- it's all part and parcel of what makes Jones' art so damn compelling.

2. "Unknown," by Jon D. Arfstrom. 3" x 3". Ca. 1940s or 1950s. Scratchboard.


Jon D. Arfstrom started as a fan artist in the Forties, contributing piles of illustrations to fanzines. Much of his work was published by legendary 'zine publisher, book dealer, and letterpress printer Roy A. Squires in his Fantasy Advertiser. By 1951, Arfstrom was contributing work professionally to various pulps, including Weird Tales and Other Worlds. He eventually grew beyond genre work, becoming a well known mid-western artist.

Though he's a formidable painter, Arfstrom remains one of my favorite black and white illustrators -- and I absolutely love this particular piece. The detail is astounding. Scratchboard is pretty unforgiving; the art is created by literally scratching away the black surface to reveal the white part of the board. If you screw up, the only way to fix the mistake is to cover it over with black paint -- but it never looks right.

I have no idea if it was ever published; I'm guessing yes, and I'm guessing it was in one of Roy Squires' fanzines. He was a prolific publisher, though, and I haven't had the opportunity to hunt down the artwork. One of these days I'll get around to it.

3. "Unknown," by Malcom H. Smith. 4.5" x 3". Ca. 1950. Gouache on board.


Malcom H. Smith began his professional career in 1940 with submissions to Amazing Stories, which was published by Ziff-Davis. He eventually joined their staff, working his way up to art director when they expanded their line of titles. Smith also contributed regularly to Other Worlds, Imagination, Fate, and other pulps. At one point, he completed hundreds of paintings for the nonfiction book Life On Other Worlds -- but sadly the project was shelved. (Apparently, at least one of the paintings made its way into a collection.) Smith went on to work as an artist for NASA at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Now, there's a bit of a mystery surrounding this particular piece. First, there's no proof that Smith actually painted it. I've spoken to a number of experts who all agree that it certainly looks like something Smith might have done -- the aliens, in particular, appear in some of his covers. There's also agreement that despite some issues surrounding the proportions of the woman in the painting, the line work and color show the solid technique of someone who knew his way around a paint brush. So what gives?

This painting came from the collection of legendary science fiction fan Forrest J Ackerman, a man who had befriended pretty much everyone in the field and who had amassed over the years a stupendous, museum-sized collection of ephemera, movie props, books, and yes, artwork. With that in mind, the leading theory, proposed by many of the people I spoke to about this piece of art, is that perhaps Smith painted it as a quick sketch for Forry -- maybe as a gift. It'd certainly explain the roughness.

While I'm only about 90% convinced that this was done by Smith, I choose to accept it as fact. It's a nice idea, and it's about as close to owning a real Smith as I'm ever likely to get.

Regardless as to who did it, I think it's an awesome piece of art, a funky take on alien invasion scenarios and yet another opportunity to ask, "Why do aliens keep abducting naked earth women?"

4. "The Commuters," by Jack Gaughan. 4" x 6". Ca. 1961. Watercolor (I think) on paper.


Jack Gaughan was one of the premier science fiction artists in the 1960s. He began working in the field a decade earlier, contributing work to a variety of publications, but he really made a name for himself in the early Sixties as a cover artist for Ace paperbacks. He also contributed regularly to magazines such as Galaxy, where he served for a time as art director. Even as his professional career flourished -- he won numerous awards, including multiple Hugos (science fiction's highest honor) -- Gaughan never forgot his roots and continued to produce fan art for 'zines.

Me, I love Jack Gaughan's work. It's punchy, it's exciting, it's slightly abstract, it's full of energy and personality. It's also in high demand and generally costs more than I can afford to spend. This piece, though, is a preliminary sketch Gaughan did for a possible cover for Galaxy science fiction. It's not quite as "finished" as his final paintings, but it's still more detailed than many preliminaries by other artists.

It's a great, whimsical piece; as a New Yorker, how can I not love the idea of a subway car flying past the moon? Man, I want an office on the moon...

Stay tuned for part three, coming real soon!





A FINAL NOTE





Much of the biographical information contained in this post comes from the be-all and end-all of books about science fiction and fantasy artists, Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary, by Jane Frank. It's an exhaustive study of the subject with hundreds of in-depth entries about pretty much everyone who's ever produced any sort of art within the genre. Highly recommended!

A nice review: http://www.sfsite.com/08a/ar301.htm

Copies are available at both Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

And check out Jane Frank's online store, Worlds of Wonder (www.wow-art.com). She's been collecting and dealing science fiction art for decades and is tops in the field!

A Picture's Worth A Thousand... Toys?

Last night, I had the distinct pleasure of playing host to artist Steven Skollar, who was over at the Attic to take some photographs of my robots and ray guns. Skollar's a painter -- and a very good one, at that -- and needed the pictures to use as references for an upcoming series of portraits.

Painter Steven Skollar taking a reference photo of Irwin's Shooting Man From Mars.

Of course, when he contacted me a few days ago, I'll admit I'd never heard of Steven Skollar. But after digging through his web site (www.stevenskollar.com) and seeing his art, I knew I wanted to help him out. He works in oils and his style evokes art by the past masters. We're talking classic portraiture -- weighty, heavy, realistic stuff that both scrutinizes and celebrates its subjects in a way you just don't often see anymore.

However, he applies this technique to the most whimsical of subjects: Toys! (How freakin' cool!)

This is great pop art, no doubt about it. And what I really love about Skollar's painting is that he avoids the overwhelming irony that's infected so much of today's pop-, low-brow, and underground art scenes. (Irony's fine, don't get me wrong, but too much of it gets annoying. I'll leave that rant for another time, though.) The pop-ness of it all stems from, among other things, the juxtaposition of technique and subject, of the serious and the playful, of the meticulous and the goofy. He embraces it all with equal amounts of passion, and it comes through in his work.

So yeah, you can understand why I was so happy to help him out.

But there were other reasons to have him over -- besides my being a big ol' (if newly minted) fanboy.

For one thing, I was curious about the toys he'd choose to paint. He was interested in their aesthetics, he told me. Which robots and ray guns did interesting things with light? Which ones had funky shapes? Which ones looked fun? He wanted to strip away discussions of rarity, age, manufacturer, variations, and especially monetary value and get to those things that make toys toys.

I love that. We collectors put up walls between ourselves and these things by placing them on pedestals. We treat them like museum pieces. But if we're really going to appreciate them, I think it's important to remember that they're playthings designed for kids. They were meant to inspire imagination, and then to be consumed and destroyed so that parents would run out and buy more of them. With this in mind, the fact that they can function today as objects of art and historical artifacts just makes it all so much cooler.

(Look, I'm not a complete maniac. I know these toys are often delicate and -- sigh -- expensive, and I know they need to be treated with care and respect. I'm just sayin' that they're still toys, and let's try to not lose sight of that.)

On top of all this, I was looking forward to watching Skollar take his photos. I know the picture above makes it look like he's set up a little display with a couple small lights. But believe me, there's much more to his technique. However, it's top secret, so I can't get into it. Suffice it to say, I learned a lot of tricks that I'll be trying out on some upcoming photos for the blog.

So what's it all for? Why's Skollar doing all this work? Well, that's also top secret for now. But as soon as he's released all the information, you can be sure I'll post it here. Let's just say that as a fan of both toy robots and Skollar's painting, I'm very excited about what's in store for the next year.

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Program...

Webomator (www.webomator.com)

Fans of science fiction artwork and retro-futurism -- and if you're reading this, that means you -- should definitely check out Webomator. Besides the usual links, commentaries, and other blog-fare, it features the delightfully detailed artwork of site creator Bradley W. Schenck, an illustrator with a knack for creating tiny windows into a future that never actually happened. Fun stuff!

Electro Art Works: hand-made robot figures

Andy Hill, working under the name Electro Art Works (www.electroartworks.com), is an artist and collector who has turned his considerable talents towards making vintage-style robots, ray guns, and flying saucers (the latter often being driven by robots, and armed with ray guns, natch). While so many people think "1950s" when they're designing vintage robots, Andy seems to have captures a much earlier, 1930s science-fiction aesthetic. These robots really look like they stepped out of a Frank R. Paul Amazing Stories cover painting. It's only one of the things that makes the Andy Bots stand out from the crowd. 

My two Andy Bots: Blasto (left) and Cosmo. Photos: Andy Hill

Andy's figures -- sculptures, toys, whatever you want to call them -- are full of personality, but without being hokey. (If they were animated movies, they'd be Wall-E, not Robots.) He uses found parts, but combines them so skillfully, and is such a wiz with fabrication, that you can't really tell where the bits and pieces come from. Andy once told me that he likes using found parts as a means of recycling. So on top of being completely cool, his figures are environmentally sound. Guilt-free fun! 

You can see all of the robots (and other sculptures, including dinosaurs) produced by Electro Art Works over the years by visiting the web site. Don't be put off by the "sold" signs on so many of the figures. Andy seems to work in waves, and there's never a long pause before new robots start popping up on his site. 

On a personal note, I've known Andy for a couple years. I own two of his robots, and will probably own more. He's a great gun, fun and friendly, and I consider him a real asset to the vintage robot community.