At the November 4 Illustration Art Auction at Heritage Auctions, four of my paintings will be offered for sale.
This is the comprehensive sketch for the cover of the 1983 science fiction novel by William Greenleaf, published by Berkeley/Ace.
This was my first paperback cover as a freelance illustrator. After finishing the background paintings for Ralph Bakshi's Fire and Ice, I turned down an offer from Disney Animation and decided to take the plunge as a freelance illustrator, painting paperback covers and sending the paintings by overnight mail to New York.
Story: A space shuttle stranded on a hellish planet leaves its crew of five in a dangerous predicament.
Street scenes (pair), 1984, oil on board
In these works you can see my fascination with British and French academic painters, such as Lawrence Alma Tadema, Ludwig Deutsch, William Logsdail, and Jean-Leon Gerome. I was living in Los Angeles at the time, overnighting the comps to the art directors for approval before proceeding with the finished art.
Companions, oil on board, 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
Much to my amusement, it also appeared as a meme. It was widely circulated as a viral meme with a tagline "That wasn't a microdose."
Link to the Heritage Auction website
4 comments:
James did working with Frazetta influence your decision to paint covers instead of joining Disney? Did you discuss that with him? Thanks, Mark
Yes, meeting Frazetta made me awre of paperback cover illustration, which no one mentioned at art school.
I also found your lovely Quazl illustration there:
https://fineart.ha.com/itm/paintings/james-gurney-american-b-1958-quozl-paperback-cover-1989-oil-on-board-18-x-24-in-signed/a/7015-87148.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515
So many little details, very inspirational!
I just noticed your post about Dinotopia and the Ballantines, amazing that they were deeply involved in propelling Frazetta (I have Betty's notes from the first Frazetta book they published, it is apparent that she picked all the art out herself, and the page order, probably did the entire contents and layout) to international stardom , AND you as well (it seems?) I'm doing deep research on Frazetta, specifically his peak oil painting period, and I would be so honored if you could share the tapes you made with him, or a transcript thereof. There is so little in the published interview record; your tapes are probably the most important record of Frazetta on his art. How prescient of you to record him at the peak of his talent and career, and from the perspective that a great artist can bring to the table to ask relevant questions!
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