David A. Hardy

Painting: The Impact of Astronautics and Science Fiction on my Work

The author presents the main lines of his work since 1952 as a painter of pictures dealing with astronautical and astronomical subjects. The contents of several of his pictures are discussed. He points out the distinction that he recognizes between ‘space age’ art and science fiction art—primarily that in the former fewer liberties are taken with knowledge available on a subject depicted. Since about 1970 he also has made paintings of a science fiction type. In the remaining parts of the article he reviews briefly the historical precedents for science fiction art based on his years of being a science fiction (SF) devotee and gives his estimate of the quality of some of this art at present in Britain, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R.