FRANK HETTICK

Frank Hettick

Frank's interest in space art began when he received the now-classic book, The Conquest of Space, for a Christmas present in 1949.

"It was the same book that would start many other young minds around the world to dreaming of rocketships, space travel, distant planets, strange landscapes and far-off adventures in space," recalls Frank. "The paintings were magnificent - landscapes of other worlds and sunsets that no man had ever seen!"

It was the dawn of the Space Age, and inspired by the book's Chesley Bonestell artwork, 13-year-old Frank began painting his own fantastic scenes of space exploration. By the time he graduated high school in Tillamook, Ore., some of his paintings (like the rocketship below) had been displayed in the school's lobby.

For nearly half-century after that, Frank focused on other ventures and raising a family. It wasn't until his retirement in 2001 that he turned his attention back toward his first love -- astronomical art.

“My mind was just filled with scenes I had been storing up over the past 50 years – and I was anxious to get to it!" he says.

And thus began a thriving second career. In a gallery on his Oregon property, Frank uses mixed media, oils, acrylics, photography and digital manipulation to create realistic visions of space from our own solar system and beyond, but all with a 1950s feel.

Often, he includes space-suited figures to give his work perspective, illustrating the incredible vastness and loneliness of outer space.

"My approach to space art revolves around what I myself believe the exploration of space ‘should have been’ rather than what it has really turned out to be," explains the multi-award-winning master. "In fact, several other space artists have termed my style as being 'retro-space art.'"