Bob's ART du Jour

Hi, I'm Bob Eggleton and this is my painting and "life in general blog" but mostly paintings. Usually they're for sale. Anyway, if you like something contact me at zillabob@cox.net and ENJOY!!

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Location: New England, United States

I am a Hugo award-winning fantasy/SF artist who works on both publishing projects and film concept work(such as Jimmy Neutron and most recently, The Ant Bully) but I have a passion for landscape work, small paintings and exploring the properties of paint. This blog will mostly showcase my "painting-for-the-day" as kind of a personal voyage. I'll also be inserting sketches,photos and ideas of projects I am working on, that I can, when I can, so look for those every so often(usually as paint is drying!)

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

John Berkey-SF Art Legend-RIP


This is quick, but John Berkey, one of the greatest masters of science fiction art, particularly from the 1970's and '8o's has passed away. He'd had lingering health issues for many years, surviving a brush with death due to a heart defect, years before. Some of my first exposure to fantastical art was from his hand. He used to do alot of movie work when posters were painted. Inparticular, his paintings for Dino DeLaurentiis' 1976 remake of KING KONG made the movie appear way better than it turned out, and added alot to the marketing hype because of their stunning look.


He produced a ton of covers too numerous to mention and had two volumes of his work done in the 90's and 2000's by Friedlander Publishing and Paper Tiger(cover, above), respectively. No one painted space hardware like he did. He often made his own paints, saying store-bought ones made the art look just that. He was unique in his vision. For some reason, SF fandom never really took his work to their hearts(generally speaking, as I do know people who love his work) and he was passed over for a much deserved Hugo Award in any of the given years he was so prolific. He did however win many prestigious Society of Illustrators Awards and was voted a Grand Master by SPECTRUM(the yearly volume of fantastic art and illustration) a few years ago.
My good friend Irene Gallo has a bit more about him and his incredible work, over at her blog:
Once again, it's a dark week for science fiction...

3 Comments:

Blogger Chris Jouan said...

There is nothing I could say that would express my heartfelt sadness. I am absolutely inconsolable about this news....

8:25 PM  
Blogger Bob Eggleton (Zillabob) said...

It's sad, it certainly is. He was 75 and, we take comfort that he died in peace, with friends and family near him. But his work goes on in the form of re-licensed images for such publishers as Night Shade Books and others.

9:03 PM  
Blogger 紅燒魚takesi said...

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1:33 AM  

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