sad news

[realthog]

The artist John Berkey has just died. For more, see Irene Gallo's blog at http://igallo.blogspot.com/2008/04/john-berkey.html and Bob Eggleton's blog at http://bobsartdujour.blogspot.com/.

I never met John Berkey, although I was very proud to publish his book The Art of John Berkey (text by Jane Frank) while I was at Paper Tiger; by then he was already too ill for face-to-face  encounters with strangers. He was one of the most painterly of sf artists, and managed to convey both splendour and strangeness with a power and sense of wonder that it's hard to describe. He achieved this even in many of his straightforward landscapes and other paintings, some of which I was lucky enough to see in original in connection with work on the book. Science-fiction illustration -- and indeed the world of illustration at large -- has lost one of its major exponents, a giant figure in the field's history. I'm deeply saddened by the news.
 

Comments

[nballingrud.livejournal.com]

I love Berkey's work. The first time I "discovered" him I was maybe twelve years old and I got this National Geographic book about the solar system. It had a gorgeous Berkey illustration of a spaceship on the front, with fire boiling out of it with as many hues and depths as one of JMW Turner's stormy skies. I was thrilled when Night Shade tapped him to do the cover art for David Drake's Hammer books. This is very sad news indeed.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"JMW Turner's stormy skies"

A very apt comparison.