Chelsey Bonestell -- Saturn As Seen From Titan (1944)

¤ "Saturn As Seen From Titan (1944)" By Chelsey Bonestell from a gallery on the artist: "Bonestell Space Art". There is a page called "titan" on how this masterpiece was created.

¤ Rings anyone? Not a star gazer by nature -- but when Darrell suggested I look at this space art, I could see the attraction straight away. Chelsey Bonestell has a unique gift in bringing the unfamiliar to your attention so that you feel like you have been there before and that you are returning home. The bit that impresses me the most is the shadow-like phase of Saturn floating between two rocky crags. The crags remind me of a Cadbury Flake confectionery bar. (Oops, must be hungry.)

~ Mags

¤ When you are a child and going through school many images "just are" and you don't think about how they were created and by whom. The images are something that always have been in the books that you know and perhaps loved. I loved books about space and films and film strips about space. (I wonder how many remember film strips in school? Basically a slide show on a roll.) This picture is one that I remember. I cannot even tell you what books I saw the image in.

Space Art was extremely important in the days before we had the fantastic imaging equipment and far flung exploring satellites we have today. Today we actually have seen images from Titan's Surface! In 1944... it was up to imagination and science to provide any inspiration to people as to what wonders might be out there. Some like this Bonestell work, nearly seem photographic and perhaps better than photographic. Perhaps some details are wrong... it wouldn't be from cloud shrouded Titan's surface but perhaps another larger moon of Saturn?

We still actually rely a lot on artist's interpretations of objects and vistas in space beyond what we can actually observe with remote sensing and satellite. But the artist's have better resources to draw on. They also now have computers to draw on. I shall have to in future review some of the current space art of new planets discovered around stars far away.

This one has incredible towering cliffs with perhaps methane ice on the ledges and tops. Saturn is seen from towards the back in a difficult angle to see from the Earth with the top surface of the rings illuminated. There is a link to how he created models to paint the rock faces from and experiment with different lighting. That was interesting. It was also interesting to learn that the media is thin layers of oil paint on "illustration board" which had a large black and white print of the model mounted on it.

I am thinking that in a way, an artist can be a space explorer just as an astronomer or other scientist can.

~ Darrell

M.C. Escher - Double Planetoid

¤ M.C. Escher's "Double Planetoid" is an illustration of this well known artist that can be found in a number of galleries and collections. We are highlighting it on "The Oldest Escher Collection the Web - Since 1993" "World of Escher" and "Jill Britton's Escher Gallery". "World of Escher" has information on the artist. "Jill Britton's Escher Gallery" has the best and clearest images. "The Oldest Escher Collection the Web - Since 1993" has a good collection as well as links to works inspired by Escher. Please note that we chose to use a larger image for a thumbnail because smaller ones simply do not work for this illustration. (Link to "The Official M.C.Escher Website".)

¤ I'd like to credit my best friend, Darrell Penner, for introducing me to the work of M.C. Escher. After looking at his work for a little while, I realized that all of his shapes on one side of the planetoid are exactly the same as on the other. He takes tremendous care and pride in the fact that everything is symmetrical and drawn like a mathematician.

He is well respected by scientists and mathematicians and I just wonder if it is because of his exactness and attention to detail. I have glanced at some of his other pieces and he manages to put ordinary objects in places where they ought not to be, and somehow yet this still seems to work just fine. So if you are someone that likes symmetrical works of art, then Escher is the man for you.

~ Mags

¤ M.C. Escher's masterpiece, "Double Planetoid" might not seem so impressive to many people today, until they realize it was not done using computer aide. Escher was born in 1898 and died in 1972* and computers were not being routinely used for artwork until well after 1972.

Escher's work was done using techniques of woodcutting and lithography. These processes involve creating a master printing plate or block by hand and printing the piece from that. Each line on Escher's works were originally guided by hand!

Escher's work, like "Double Planetoid" contrasts geometry and nature along with -- in some cases -- optical illusion. He does in this case use optical illusion to create a feeling of depth, but that is something we are very used to. "Double Planetoid" takes two interlocked tetrahedron where one is a fantasy planetoid -- rough and covered with tropical plants; lizard and saurian-like creatures living on the cliff-like structures -- while the second is a fortress a Templer Knight might be proud of -- all tied to an internal point of gravity. The primitive tropical tetrahedron does not connect at all with the fortress tetrahedron but rather the fortress bridges it with arches which emerge from holes on the landscape of the primitive land.

You can see the lithographic lines used to create shading and shape for the print when you look at the full sized work. There is a very different feel between the sort of line used on each of the two tetrahedron.

You really have to view the full sized image from the "Jill Britton's Escher Gallery". At least it is the same size as the prints in the book of prints I bought in my youth, perhaps only a few years after Escher's passing. I have bought few art books in my life, but the book of Escher prints was the first I bought and one of my favourites! This is one of my favourite works as well. ...though I do love the "Curl Up" creature with the "baby feet" that rolls up into the wheel to travel by rolling as much or more...

~ Darrell

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* "World of Escher"