Stepping on the Moon with Paul & Chris Calle

UPDATE: August 1st, 2009. I had lunch with Chris Calle today. Chris brought along his new book, "Celebrating Apollo 11: The Artwork of Paul Calle." Chris's book lovingly traces his father Paul and his artistic journey through America's race to the Moon. The book represents one of the best retrospectives of Paul Calle's space art, since Abrams published the now famous "Eyewitness to Space" catalog in 1973.

Chris has enlisted many of the people involved in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo program to describe their feelings about Paul Calle's artwork. Astronauts like Bill Anders talk about a painting like "Power to Go!" (reproduced on the book's cover) provided such a vivid recollection of the his own Saturn V launch on Apollo 8 that he choose the painting for his residence which he was Ambassador of Norway as an example of American art.

Andy Chaikin wrote the forward for the book and really nailed the description of Paul's drawing technique by saying, "...to vibrate with some kind of fantastic energy, like iron filings tracing the contours of a magnetic field." Any of us who had ever played with a game called "Wooly Wily" on a long road trip in the family automobile in the early 1960's ( http://www.childofthe1980s.com/2007/10/05/wooly-willy ) will understand what Andy was describing when he wrote of Paul's pen and ink drawing technique.

The book's publisher used high quality paper and high resolution photographs to capture the detail in Paul's exquisite pencil work.

The book is short and sweet and full of Paul's magical pen and ink drawings. It is a book not to be missed by any space art fan.

I would urge any one reading this blog to contact Chris Calle at www.callespaceart.com to buy a signed copy of the book.
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In 1963, James Webb, instructed NASA to record America's drive to the Moon through the eyes of artists. Of the eight artists first chosen by NASA to document manned spaceflight, one of the artists was a 35 year old illustrator named Paul Calle. In hindsight it seems almost nature now that Paul was among the first to document Man's first journey to another world, since he had illustrated the covers for such science fiction magazines as Amazing Stories in the 1950's.

Although Paul is extraordinarily talented in the use of oils as a painter, it is his use of the pencil that truly makes him a master in the artistic world. This phenomenally gifted skill with one of the simplest implements in an artist's toolbox has allowed Calle virtually unrestricted access to his subjects during America's race to the Moon. Calle was the only NASA selected artist to attend the "suit up" of the Apollo 11 astronauts as they prepared for Man's lunar landing. His pen & ink sketches of those final moments prior to the crew's launch have been widely exhibited around the nation and currently reside in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.

Among his many talents as an artist, Calle is a creator of postal stamp art. As such, he designed many US postage stamps for the United States Postal Service including several that are related to spaceflight.

Calle was the creator of one of the most popular USPS stamps ever issued. The "First Man on the Moon" stamp artistically recreates the moment that Neil Armstrong placed his foot onto the surface of the Moon for the first time.

Since the stamp's release in 1969, as shown in the above photograph featuring the Apollo 11 crew and the Postmaster General during the official stamp presentation on September 9th, 1969, it has remained a favorite as a stamp and a collectible.

I was recently the recipient of a most generous gift to the space art collection by Leslie Cantwell. As a gift, Leslie gave me an original Paul Calle pencil drawing of Calle's initial idea for the "First on the Moon" stamp. The gift was greatly appreciated and came as a complete surprise from a wonderful friend.

As the above scan of the pencil drawing attempts to show, Calle masterfully uses his talent to portray Armstrong's first step onto the Moon's surface. Calle uses an artistic method that ranges from broad course strokes, reminiscent of Van Gogh's work, to finely detailed pencil marks. He pulls this vast range of technique together to provide us with a wonderful sketch that is alive with the potential energy of one of history's most famous moments.

Paul has passed his artistic genes on to his son, Chris, who has also become a well known artist and stamp designer in his own right. They even work in the same art studio together. There must be an impressive exchange of ideas on composition and technique in the workspace that they share in rural New England.

Paul and Chris have collaborated on various projects involving both stamp and coin design. The above photograph shows a completed design drawing for a commemorative coin series for the Marshall Islands.

Paul Calle has been in the unique position, as one of the few artists, to document the transition from science fiction to science fact in the span of his lifetime. He has intimately chronicled manned spaceflight and will be forever linked to Mankind's first footprint on the Moon.

Recently, I have been in contact with Chris Calle. Chris has designed a website, located at www.callespaceart.com , showcasing both his and his father's art work. Through that site, I was able to contact Chris and procure three first day covers provide a representative example of the Calle style.

This first cover pencil drawing of the first man on the moon is the grand daddy of them all. Paul recreated his famous design for the 1969 version of First Man on the Moon stamp on this original first day cover. The cover was cancelled on day the stamp was first displayed publicly by the US Post Office.

Chris Calle shows his talent with a pencil on this first day cover. Chris used the 20th anniversary of Man's first lunar landing to portray Armstrong and Aldrin planting the first American flag on the Moon.

Finally, Paul and Chris collaborated on the stamp design representing the 25th anniversary of man's landing on the Moon.

These three covers illustrate the style and technique of two generations of space artists. One wonders what will the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing bring from this talented father and son team?

Robert McCall Space Art

Update! In 2009, I was able to make one final purchase directly from Robert McCall, just prior to the donation of his entire collection to the University of Arizona for permanent display.

The above original work titled "First Men on the Moon" was painted as a smaller study for an eight by twelve foot mural.

The work that I was able to procure is a two by three foot original painting that was the study for the mural. McCall used a grid scale to determine the location and dimension of the subjects used in the mural. The scale grid marks show on the canvas of the study. While the study is very true to the mural, there are some differences. The study shows the lunar module (LM) is facing the artist, while it is turned sideways in the mural. Aldrin appears further away from Armstrong in the study. Finally, in the study, McCall used more of his technique of placing the Earth in the background of the composition while immersed in a cross pattern of stars and galactic dust.

In tracing the history of the painting, I found a San Antonio
College News Release that provided some information on the mural itself. The article states, "On July 20, 1969, Colonel Charles E. Cheever and bank employees gathered around a TV in the bank lobby to watch and celebrate the momentous touchdown with champagne. He commissioned the painting from Robert McCall, who in 1970 completed the life-sized painting that has hung in the Broadway Bank lobby ever since."

Recently in 2008, the Cheevers family donated the mural to
the San Antonio College, where it now hangs in the Francis Scobee Planetarium.

Mr. McCall granted my request to pose with this original work of art.

This is a major addition to the space art collection. It is, in all likelihood, the last acquisition that I will make directly from Robert McCall.

The Original McCall Article

If Chesley Bonestell is the Dean of Space Art, then Robert McCall is the superstar of the genre. McCall's work on very large murals at the National Air and Space Museum, it's annex, the Udvar-Hazy Center and the Johnson Space Center are seen by hundreds of thousands each year and his movie poster art work on Tora! Tora! Tora! and 2001 as well as other movies have been seen by millions.

Beginning in 1963 under the orders of James Webb, NASA commenced a program to have artists help document the work being done in the race to the Moon. McCall was one of the artists brought on board to record Man's journey into Outer Space. Since that time Robert McCall has documented some of the most famous images of a special time in history.






















In March of 2001, I was lucky enough to have the chance to visit with Robert McCall at his studio. I photographed him as he was posing next to pieces of his art work that he had prepared for movies like 2001. During our time together as I interviewed him about his art and his time at NASA. Mr. McCall is a truly fascinating man as well as an excellent subject for an interview about the Apollo era.


I brought along some space related covers for McCall in the hope that he would do a small pen drawing on each of them. He did so much more. The above piece is a crew signed Apollo 17 cover with the McCall designed Apollo 17 mission patch on the front. The subject he chose was a moment during the EVA with Schmitt near the LRV as photographed by Cernan.

My personal favorite of the works included here is this portrait of Robert Goddard. This is a first day cover issued in 1964 commemorating the professor and his work on liquid fueled rockets. As shown above McCall depicted the man between two famous eras of rocketry, the testing of a liquid fueled rocket in Roswell, NM in the 1930's and the Saturn V. Both rockets are launching in the daylight of one of McCall's trademark brilliant Suns.

The other reason that this piece is a personal favorite has to do with coincidence. Goddard moved to the southwestern desert near Roswell, NM to test rockets that had outgrown his farm in Massachusetts. At the same time, Edgar Mitchell, who would walk on the Moon during the Apollo 14 mission, grew up in Roswell and would walk past Goddard's home on his way to school. I showed the cover to Edgar and he inscribed the line "I lived down the road" and signed it. Coincidence that the inventor of the liquid fueled rocket and a moonwalker lived near each other? I think not!

McCall is also a prolific designer of stamps for the USPS.

Recently, I was able to add the above preliminary sketch of one of McCall's more famous stamp designs, "A Decade of Achievement." This stamp was issued by the US Post Office in August of 1971 to represent the 10th year since Kennedy issued his proclamation of sending a man to the Moon.

McCall sent this sketch along with another design for a twin stamp to be printed in time for the anniversary of NASA's 1961 directive to send a man to the Moon. One might call this rendering the birth certificate of a stamp. McCall also wrote several lines of instruction for use of the designs for the stamp. Bob also used the sketch paper as a artist pallet for the colors used in the painting.

The initial "twin" stamp design shown in the sketch above differed from the final design. McCall included the other programs that lead to the Apollo Moon landings in the above design sketch.

Project Mercury and the Gemini Program are represented by their spacecraft orbiting Earth on one side of the twin stamp. The Apollo Project was reflected on the second side of the stamp by the lunar module and lunar rover on the Moon's surface and the command service module orbiting overhead. McCall points out in his notes on the sketch that he had the latest NASA information on the rover's design.

As the above "twin" stamp block printed by USPS shows, the final design omitted the other projects for the inclusion of the Earth and the McCall trademark sun with four point sunbeams. The question in my mind is "Why did McCall leave out the two very important programs that lead to the final accomplishment of landing a man on the Moon?"

In my opinion, I find the initial sketch more representative of the achievements that NASA accomplished in that marvelous decade.

The above painting is a recent gem acquired for the collection. The painting titled "Only the Beginning" was completed in the early 1970's.

In talking with Robert McCall about the painting, McCall "was inspired by the wanting to make a simple statement of our remarkable achievement of landing on the Moon, recognizing that this is Only the Beginning."

When asked if the painting was for publication, Robert McCall said, "The painting was purely for fun. There was no client, no reason other than I simply wished to express the feeling that I had. It was so remarkable to me that we had accomplished this great achievement."

"Only the Beginning" is one of those works that define my knowledge of the artist's technique. It is a prime example of his unique use of composition with the Moon in the foreground and the Earth centered in the background. The addition of the lunar module landing on the lunar surface, while the command/service module streaks overhead completes the Apollo theme in this painting.

Although not painted for publication, the painting did appear as a two page spread in a book of McCall art titled, "Vision of the Future" written by the famous science fiction author, Ben Bova.

McCall was kind enough to remarque, inscribe and sign the reverse of painting for me also.

I was extremely lucky to purchase a McCall painting from Gene Cernan's collection via Novaspace. The painting has special significance. The painting, which is 26 inches in diameter of acrylic on Masonite, a representation of the Apollo 17 mission patch that was designed by Robert McCall and used during the mission. McCall gave this painting to Cernan at the time of the mission and it remained in Gene's collection until it's sale.

The work represents a painting of a mission patch by the insignia's designer for a lunar landing mission and given to the commander of the mission.

The painting had suffered some damage over the years. The painting had been hung by screws and incurred some scaring to the paint as seen in the above photograph taken upon it's arrival. By looking closely at the photo, drill holes can be seen across the middle of painting and linear black marks can be seen on the edges of the piece.

I brought the work to a museum art restorer to assess the damage and to determine a plan of conservation for the painting.

The first step was to attempt clean the painting to remove the various discoloring marks on the surface of the "canvas" (difficult task due to the use of acrylics). The initial work would be followed by filling the holes. Then the restorer worked to match the paint used in the original work. The restoration was finished by touching up the damaged areas. A conscious decision was made to leave the damage on the edges untouched due to the difficulties in repairing them and the fact that the frame would cover that area.

The above photograph shows the finished work prior to framing.

After the restoration was complete, McCall's signature on the work became much clearer as it emerged from under the contamination on the surface of the painting due to it's years of exposure to the elements. The painting now hangs proudly on display.

Recently through the help of Catherine McCall, Robert's daughter, and her gallery McCall Studios (http://www.mccallstudios.com/) I was able to purchase the painting shown above that is titled, "Launch of a Saturn V." The original painting is 23" x 30" and was completed in 1973. McCall worked with acrylic on paper to create the massive effects of the liftoff of world's largest launch vehicle. To me, personally, this painting sums up the race to the Moon.

The painting depicts the night launch of Apollo 17. Since he designed the mission patch for the flight, McCall and his wife, Louise attended the launch as guests of the crew. He recalled that "it was a night launch and a spectacle to behold."

Slightly off topic concerning the Apollo era, but still germane to Robert McCall's body of work, are his designs for floating cities. After watching flat bottomed clouds float across the sky, McCall came upon his designs for floating cities. Although not within today's technology, McCall hopes that one day cities will float above the Earth and thus protect the precious open land left on the planet. The above work is a minor pen and ink sketch of just such a city.

The pastel original pictured above is a more finished study of a floating city much like the one depicted in the finished painting entitled "Desert Nocturne."

Back in 2001, as we wrapped up our visit, I asked Mr. McCall about his book and he produced one and drew the above felt tip pen sketch on the inside of the cover. At that, my visit ended and I was on my way home.

To the Moon with Snoopy

I purchased this painting from Gene Cernan. Captain Cernan was the Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) aboard the Apollo 10 mission to the Moon. The crew of Apollo 10 named their two spacecraft with code names, so ground control could determine which craft was communicating at any one time. Charles Schultz had given NASA the license to use the characters from the cartoon strip, "Peanuts" at the time. The crew named the Command/Service Module "Charlie Brown" and the Lunar Module "Snoopy" after two of the main characters in the cartoon. The crew had paintings of Charlie Brown and Snoopy done and took them onboard for the mission.


The above picture shows the back of the painting. Gene Cernan wrote "Flown on A-10. Seen on inflt TV" and signed it. John Young would later sign it in Tucson, AZ during a Novaspace signing.


The reason for the paintings was that they were to be used as a test of the color television camera that was being used for the first time on a trip to the Moon. The paintings were done on brightly colored backgrounds, so they would show up during the broadcasts from the spacecraft during it's voyage to the Moon. The picture included here is a still photograph taken from one of the television broadcasts and shows Tom Stafford, Commander of the Apollo 10 mission, holding the Snoopy painting.


Here is another still photograph from the color television broadcast on the Apollo 10 misson. John Young is holding the Snoopy painting.


In 2004, I traveled to Burbank to meet with Gene Cernan to discuss the painting. I was able to photograph Cernan with the painting.

In 2008, I met with General Stafford in Florida prior to helping his curator move some artifacts to the Stafford Air and Space Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma. We met for dinner in a restaurant in Cocoa Beach. The photograph above show the General signing back of the Snoopy painting. We were sitting at a bar and I was silently praying that nothing would fall near the piece. While my prayers were answered, sometimes you do what you have to do to complete a task.

The artwork now has the signatures and inscriptions from crew of Apollo 10. The photograph was taken of the painting that is now encapsulated in an archival UV protected frame and shows the signatures of the crew.

This photograph shows the painting in it's plexiglass frame. I wanted to have the ability to show both the front and back of the artwork. The unique frame does just that.

The painting has been sent to Santa Rosa, California, where it is currently on loan to the Charles Schulz Museum for it's new exhibition, "To The Moon: Snoopy Soars with NASA."

Credit: Susie Martinez courtesy of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center.

The Snoopy exhibit opened at the Charles Schulz Museum and will run from January 31st to July 20th, 2009. The above photograph shows part of the exhibit currently on display. The Snoopy painting, sporting a new museum frame, is visible in the far left corner of the center kiosk. As an aside, Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan were in attendance for the exhibit opening.

A friend, who attended the opening with Stafford and Cernan snapped this picture of the Snoopy painting on display.

The caption shown in above photograph is from the Snoopy painting display. It states that Charles Schulz wrote about the painting and it's meaning to him in his biography.

The exhibit provides a guided tour about a small, but unique, story in the larger history of the human exploration of Space.

Alexei Leonov: A Soul in Space

Is it the Russian soul that leads that country's people to produce romantic poets, writers and artists? Whatever the reason, Alexei Leonov is one who has been captured by his motherland's emotional embrace.


As a cosmonaut, Leonov has directly participated in many of Russia's (formerly the Soviet Union's) space flight firsts. As pictured above, Leonov was the first human to walk in space on Voskhod 2. General Leonov also trained for the first Russian lunar landing prior to the program's cancellation in the 1970's.

In what was maybe his finest moment, Alexei was the commander of the Russian half of the Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission in 1975. This mission represented the first international cooperative flight between the two former rivals (USSR and USA) in the race to the Moon.

Already an accomplished artist on both Earth and in space, Alexei brought colored pencils with him on the ASTP flight. He drew a series of sketches of the crew of both spacecraft (Soyuz and Apollo) as well as a self portrait during the mission.

For his work in space, Alexei Leonov was awarded the "Hero of the Soviet Union" twice as well as the "Order of Lenin." He is a true hero in the history of spaceflight.



As an artist, Alexei has risen to become one of the best known space artists in the world. His works have been published in many books such as "In the Stream of Stars," "Wait for Us, Stars" and his own book, "Earth and Space Painting." Leonov is a member of the Cosmic Group of the USSR Artist Union and International Association of Astronomical Artists. He has participated in several space art workshops throughout the world. His works have been exhibited in such institutions as the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

For his work as an artist, Alexei Leonov has been awarded the prestigious IAAA Lucien Rudaux Memorial Award and has been inducted into the International Association of Astronomical Artists' Hall of Fame.


In Russia, Leonov is a sought after designer of stamps. I was lucky to procure the above painting which was produced for a 15th anniversary commemorative stamp display at auction in 1999. The work displays Alexei's famous spacewalk. The painting shows him over Italy during his time outside his spacecraft. The work includes his trademark sun with its bright red corona.

In 1980, Fleetwood published the first spacewalk stamp commemorative in a two page limited edition binder.

I had the honor of meeting Alexei Leonov in September of 2004 in Los Angeles. I brought the spacewalk painting with me on the trip. I showed Alexei the painting and he smiled and said "Da" ("Yes" in Russian) . He re-signed the painting and then posed with it for a photograph. Francis French recalled that Leonov then took the painting back and remarqued the painting with a floating cosmonaut in the bottom margin next to his signature.

I remember that LA show in 2004, because of Alexei. During the annual banquet, Alexei rose to the podium and gave a wonderful speech. During that speech, where he said that his English was really, "sixteen words that I just rearrange," he proceeded to give a heartfelt tribute to the early spacefarers as he looked to Gordon Cooper. Alexei ended the tribute with a step down from the podium and gave an ill Gordon Cooper a great big bear hug. There was not a dry eye in the house. Gordo passed away the next month. That was my introduction to Alexei Leonov, the romantic.

Just recently I was able to procure some early watercolors from a series of paintings that Alexei did of life in early Baikonur. These three watercolors were later published in a book written by Leonov and Andrei Sokolov titled, "Life Among Stars."

Francis French and Colin Burgess refer to these watercolors in their book, "Into That Silent Sea." I recently asked Francis about the history of these works. Francis advised me that Leonov's book, "Life Among Stars," published each painting with an explanation. The above painting titled "Voskhod 2 on Start" has a caption that reads "Alexei Leonov perfectly remembers his first space flight and surely the parting words of the Chief Designer." The person that Voskhod Commander, Belyayev, and Pilot, Leonov, are talking to is Sergei Korolev, the mastermind behind the Soviet Union's space program. Korolev was deemed so important to the Soviet space program that he was considered a top secret by the government and could only be referred to as the "Chief Designer" in any publications.

On the reverse of the painting, Leonov has written what appears to be the painting's title. "Bocxog-2" translates to "Voskhod 2" in English. The information that Francis supplied about these works surprised me and I am extremely appreciative to him for his help in researching these works.

The next two paintings from Leonov show the Baikonur cosmodrome while under construction.

This first work is titled "Construction of the Central Square." It shows work being done on buildings that would soon be part of the Soviet Union's, and later Russia's, manned space port.

This final watercolor depicts the completion of the Central Square and is, appropriately titled "The Construction is Completed."

The style of these watercolors are intriguing. The sepia tone used in these paintings is unusual for any of the works that I have seen from Leonov's collection or publications.

The page shown above is from the book "Life Among Stars" by Andrei Sokolov and Alexei Leonov. The page, from the chapter entitled "Tulips of Baikonur," presents all three watercolors on one page with captions. Unfortunately, the publisher did not do justice to color and tonal qualities of Leonov's work in these reprints of the paintings for the book.

Alexei also produced paintings in collaboration with Andrei Sokolov. Sokolov is considered "The Dean of Russian space artists." Andrei was the chairman of the Cosmos Group of the USSR Artist Union. Alexei and Andrei also co-authored several books on space art.

The above painting, that I acquired on the web (a first for me), co-signed by both Leonov and Sokolov, shows a Soyuz spacecraft in the process of docking with a manned "Salyut" space station.

Leonov, as an artist and as a cosmonaut, through his personality, inspiration and his work has captured some of the soul of space travel.

As a final personal story, I would again meet General Leonov in San Antonio in 2006. There he taught me a very valuable lesson. When it comes to vodka, never try to out drink a Russian. It was a lesson well learned.

Chesley Bonestell: Coast to Coast in 40 Minutes

If Robert McCall is the star of the space artists, then Chesley Bonestell is the Dean of all Space Artists. In fact, many of the current crop of space artists will tell you that Bonestell was a major influence on their career and their work in the genre.

While Bonestell was well known for his work imagining the landscape of our Moon and planets within our Solar System, he was also noted for his work during the early years of space flight research.

"CONQUEST OF SPACE" by Willy Ley was illustrated by Bonestell and proved to be a seminal work that provided the layman of the 1950s with a serious understanding of the possible future of space travel.

Published in 1949, CONQUEST OF SPACE was one of the first books to contemplate manned space flight in Earth orbit and to the Moon. While Willy Ley discussed the facts of space travel, Chesley Bonestell conveyed the visual aspect of flight into outer space.

Bonestell was involved in painting space flight subjects throughout the 1940s and in 1947 sent a series of painted studies to PIC magazine for a proposed article on space flight in the future. The article told the story through paintings of a ballistic transcontinental rocket trip from New York to San Francisco in less than an hour.

The story was titled "Coast to Coast in 40 Minutes" and was published in October, 1947, just ten years to the month before Sputnik was launched into orbit.

In 2007, I was able to procure the entire series of finished studies that Bonestell had sent to PIC magazine pitching his article on a passenger rocket flight from coast to coast. The report was based upon Tsien Hsue-Shen's (one of the founders of JPL and later became the Father of Chinese Rocketry) theory on space flight into the edge of space.

The paintings were painted on illustration art board. Bonestell completed the paintings even to the point of varnishing the surface to protect each work. Then he forwarded them to the publisher of PIC for their review.

Bonestell even wrote a basic description in his architecturally trained handwriting of what each work represented on the base of each painting. In the case of this first painting in the series of a passenger rocket lifting off in at 7:00PM in the evening from a launch site near New York City. Bonestell used his vast knowledge of architectural rendering and matte painting to meticulously show Manhattan Island, the surrounding boroughs of New York and New Jersey coast with the rocket in the foreground on the beginning of its westward journey.

The second painting in the series shows the passenger rocket ten minutes into its travels over Pennsylvania. The viewer is looking north towards the Great Lakes and Canada. Look closely at the lower right hand corner and Niagara Falls, the lights of Buffalo, NY and Toronto, OT in Canada come into view. At the far left, Detroit's lights are coming on as nighttime approaches.

Bonestell continues his narrative for the PIC magazine publishers in that architecturally tight printing .

In plate III, the viewer continues to follow the rocket as it rises towards its maximum height of 500 miles above the Midwestern United States. The viewer is again looking towards the north at the Great Lakes, Canada and beyond. Bonestell takes in the curvature of the Earth, the thin veil of our atmosphere (accurately for a time of no satellites) and we see the Aurora Borealis portrayed for the first time at eye level instead of viewed from the Earth's surface.

The rocket has reached it's maximum height of 500 miles above the Earth's surface. The passengers can now look to the south and see the Gulf of Mexico. The clusters of lights represent the cities of New Orleans and St Louis on the Mississippi River. The rocket is winning its race with the sun as it leaves the terminator behind over the Mississippi River and is returning to daylight.

Bonestell shows us in Plate V a westward view of the country from the Rockies to the Pacific in the far distance. With the Rockies in the foreground, the passenger ship will continue its travel across the country passing over the Salt Lake in Utah. The large river structure in the left of the painting is the Grand Canyon as seen from 500 miles in space.

One interesting note about these paintings is the lack of clouds. This was a time before weather satellites or any real photographs of the Earth taken from space. Bonestell based his knowledge of the Earth's atmospheric effects on his observations of cloudless days.

As the rocket descends, the viewer is given a view of the southwest to the Gulf of California and the Baja California peninsula. Directly below is the Grand Canyon and Lake Mead. Bonestell uses his notes to go into detail about other landmarks to be seen in the painting.

Plate VII shows the passenger rocket as it descends through 250 miles on the final leg of its remarkable journey. The rocket is over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Lake Tahoe is on the right and Yosemite Valley cuts its way through the mountains on the extreme left. San Francisco Bay is now in sight.

The eighth and final painting, Bonestell shows the rocket on final approach to San Francisco. Forty minutes have elapsed since the passengers left New York. The time is 4:40PM and the Golden Gate Bridge is now in view. The sun that had already set in New York is now beginning to set in the west in shades of purple and red.

Now what was the reason used in the PIC Magazine story for this remarkable journey? A cocktail appointment! One of our passengers had dinner with with someone in New York at 6:00PM and planned to meet with someone else for cocktails at 5:00PM. Was it business? Was it a second date? Unfortunately, the article never tells us. We can only let our imaginations guide us as to the real reason for a trip from coast to coast in 40 minutes.
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There is another bit of information about this series of paintings. Chesley Bonestell used many of his paintings in more than one article or book. Four of the paintings for this series were used in the book "CONQUEST OF SPACE."

Bonestell noted on the back of these paintings which works were used in that initial treaty on Man's journey into space. The above scan shows the back of the first painting in the series. There Bonestell writes, in script, the name of article, the magazine and the edition date and states that this painting was "also reused as Plate I, CONQUEST OF SPACE."

Chesley would go on to note that paintings 2,3 and 6 would be reused as Plates III, IVa and IVb in "CONQUEST OF SPACE."

This series of works by Bonestell were used in one of the first published articles by the artist as well as included in one of the most important early books on space travel for the general public ever written.

Later in life Chesley would sign the eighth and final painting of this series as shown in the above scan.
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I would like to acknowledge Melvin Schuetz and Ron Miller for alerting me to this rare series of Bonestell paintings and for providing me with much information about Chesley Bonestell and his art.

William Hartmann: Scientist, Author and Artist

As you walk through your local book store (now more likely to be Barnes and Noble) and wander down to the isle that has the astronomy and space flight books in it, you will probably find a book written by Dr. William K. Hartmann, PhD.

Bill is the author of "The Grand Tour," "Out of the Cradle," "In the Stream of Stars," "The History of Earth" and several planetary science textbooks. Bill has also published two novels, "Mars Underground" about a Martian colony in the 2030s, and "Cities of Gold" about the Coronado expedition in the American southwest in the 1540s. He is currently working on a sequel to "Mars Underground."

With a doctorate in planetary sciences, Dr. Hartmann is also the author of many scientific publications on the geology of other worlds in our solar system. His first major work was a mapping project with his doctoral advisor, noted planetary scientist, Gerald Kuiper. Drs Hartmann and Kuiper wrote the first scientific paper on lunar impact basins in 1962.


Dr. Hartmann performed a "systematic study of lunar photographs projected on a large white globe, with the resulting "rectification" of geometrical relationships." In layman's terms, Bill used the white globe to bend the photos to reveal the actual shapes of craters and mountains on the Moon's limb (edge). The photograph shown below is an example of rectification.

This photograph taken in 2006 by the Clay Observatory is a modern version of the system that Bill used in 1962. The Clay Observatory, located in Brookline, Massachusetts, used software in place of the "white globe" to rectify a photograph in order to accentuate the image of the geological feature to be studied. The geological feature along the top edge is the Mare Orientale lava plain, surrounded by the huge Orientale multi-ring impact basin.

Hartmann and Kuiper discovered the Orientale impact basin in 1962, ans it's bulls-eye like system of rings played a large part in their research in lunar impact basin. Hartmann discovered that the impact of a large body on the Moon created ripples in the lunar surface. Those "ripples" became the mountain ranges that we see on the lunar surface today. Mare Orientale is a recent (by geological time standards) impact basin as shown by the fact that the mountains and the center basin were still very much intact. Hartmann went further by applying his theory to other mountains and mare on the near side of the Moon. Similar multiple rings were discovered around the Imbrium impact basin, making it the largest impact basin on the near side of the Moon and is used as the basis of dating the Moon's geological timeline.

While Bill is a prolific author and noted scientist, he is also a talented artist using his art to illustrate his theories as well as his books. Bill uses his paintings as illustrations for his astronomy books. The above painting "Lunar Base: Eclipse of the Sun by the Earth" is one such work. Bill did the work as part of the illustrations for the book, "Out of the Cradle." The Earth is eclipsing the Sun over a lunar base located in the Mare Orientale in this futuristic painting. Bill explained to me in a letter that he used some of his own research on impact basins in this painting.

This painting was involved in the "glasnost" period of Soviet-American relations when a group of American and Soviet space artists put on a show in Moscow which then traveled to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC in 1990 and 1991. The painting hung in the entryway to the main exhibit.

In 1974, after years of research, Bill revealed to a conference at Cornell a theory that he co-authored with fellow scientist, Don Davis. The theory was a departure from the currently accepted theories that had been disproved once the geologic samples were returned from the Moon. Bill termed it the "giant impact theory." Bill theorized that a planetesimal approximately the size of Mars struck Earth in a giant glancing impact that created a debris ring that would later accumulate to form the Moon.

The painting shown above is an illustration of that impact. It show the collision approximately twenty-five minutes after the initial impact. The painting can be seen in the latest edition of "The Grand Tour."

In 2005, I had the chance to visit Bill at his art studio in Tucson, AZ. The studio is filled with art from space artists and includes books, models and paintings that range from an original Chesley Bonestell painting to several Russian artists that participated with Bill in the Soviet-American art show in the early 1990s.

The painting on the easel above depicts the Earth and the planetesimal about an hour after the initial impact. He completed it just before I arrived in Arizona.

This painting, which also appears in the recent edition of "The Grand Tour," shows the Earth-Moon system in it's final stage of development during the Great Bombardment Era. The painting shows an Imbrium Basin sized impact occurring on the Moon. The painting shows the Earth in primordial stage of rapid rotation and a Moon with fresh impact sized basins on it's surface. These basins would be pummeled by more and more meteorites and gradually be covered over leaving little trace of these major impacts.

Bill has a keen sense of humor. I asked him for a paintbrush to go with the painting. Instead, Bill gave me his artist's palette. You will note that he also signed it. The palette is art itself and is framed with this series of paintings on the origin of the Moon.

The premise of the book"Out of the Cradle,"a book co-authored by Bill, Ron Miller and Pamela Lee, was what the future of space exploration beyond Earth could become. For the chapter on Mars, Bill painted a future explorer walking in the red sandy soil of Mars. The painting titled, "First into the dunes of Mars," shows an astronaut as he scouts a trail for his party of explorers. Bill was depicting one person's attempt to blaze a trail through some of the largest dune fields in the Solar System.

This painting and the earlier painting of "Lunar Base: The Eclipse of the Sun by the Earth" were also featured in the National Air and Space Museum's exhibit, "Blueprint for Space" in 1992. They were also featured in an chapter authored by Bill in the exhibit's catalog of the same title.

During my trip to Tucson, I also had the chance to visit Bill's office at the Institute of Planetary Sciences. Bill not only is a talented space artist, but a wonderful landscape painter. Titled "Morning in Agua Caliente Wash, Tucson," Bill depicts an early morning view looking northwest of the city towards Santa Catalina Mountains. Bill told me that this painting was from his "Pissarro" period (after Camille Pissarro, the French Impressionist and Post Impressionist painter of the late 1800s).

Bill and I have known each for about six or seven years now and in that time I was able to procure several of his books, like the inscribed edition of "The Grand Tour" and his professional papers. Those works along with his paintings provide a glimpse of a guy that Don Wilhelms, the author of "To a Rocky Moon" and a leading United State Geological Survey (USGS) planetary geologist, called, "just plain smart!"

As a scientist, teacher, painter and author, Bill Hartmann is a true Renaissance man.

Cece Bibby: The Mercury Artist

If you search hard enough every once in a while you will find a true gem of a person and with them, a story. Cece Bibby is one of those gems. As a graphic artist performing contract work for NASA in the early 1960's, Cece had a ringside seat to the beginnings of manned spaceflight.

I had the pleasure of accompanying Cece to the Astronaut Hall of Fame inductions at the Kennedy Space Center in April of 2005. I took this photograph of Cece while relaxing prior to our flight out of Orlando.

Cece was an employee for Chrysler Corporation, which was a sub contractor for NASA. Cece worked as the only woman artist in the graphics department while at Cape Canaveral. Cece worked on everything from instruction manuals to artistically interpreting scientists' and engineers' ideas for presentations.

The above drawing of an optical tracking system is from Cece's portfolio. This particular piece shows the quality of Cece's work as a draftsman. Cece told me that she worked on instruction manuals that included a drawing, such the above work, for equipment that was used in tracking missiles launched from the Cape.

In addition to her duties of providing artwork for NASA publications, Cece was also assigned to design and paint the mission insignia for the space flight of John Glenn. As Cece would tell it, she was assigned the job because her boss figured that, as a woman, Cece had the best handwriting in the art department. There is more to this story which can be found at the following links at Collectspace or Space.com

http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-080705a.html

http://www.space.com/news/cs_050909_bibby_bio.html

John Glenn wanted a different mission insignia rather then the stenciled and spray painted logo that was done for both the Shepard and Grissom flights. Cece was assigned to assist Glenn with his request for a different insignia. Once Glenn approved her design, then he requested that she paint the design on the capsule and thus Cece became the first woman to work on a rocket gantry.

The famous "Naked Lady" pictured about came about as the result of a dare and almost resulted in Cece's being fired. Gus Grissom was watching Cece design and paint the mission insignia for John Glenn's capsule. One day as Cece saw Gus at the astronaut office in Hangar S, Gus told Cece that she should really "paint a naked lady on the Boy Scout's capsule." Cece said that she could get fired for such a prank. Gus called her chicken. As an orphan, Cece learned that a dare was a serious matter and not to be taken lightly. From that beginning came the "Naked Lady" drawing. After Cece drew the picture, Sam Beddingfield helped install it in Glenn's spacecraft. Although Glenn saw the drawing and enjoyed the joke, Cece's superiors didn't find it humorous at all and attempted to fire her. The Mercury 7 astronauts stood up for her. Cece told me that Gus Grissom told Rocco Petrone that he put her up to the practical joke. In the end, Cece stayed on the job.

The first drawing was done for the initial launch attempt in January. After the controversy caused by the first drawing, Cece drew another lady shown above. The drawing was placed in Glenn's capsule for the next launch attempt which was successful and launched Glenn into Earth orbit on February 20, 1962. John's launch was the same day as Cece's birthday.

Scott Carpenter asked Cece to design the mission insignia for America's second manned orbital flight. Scott had picked the name Aurora for his flight. Cece used a design of multi colored rings to depict the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. She designed the rings with jagged edges to imitate the movement and electric feeling of the Aurora Borealis.

The insignia was also an experiment. It was decided to try various different brands of paint when Cece was applying the word "Aurora" to the capsule's shingled shell. The objective was to see which paints would survive the heat generated by reentry of the Mercury spacecraft. Cece told me that only the two "A's" and the symbolic ring design survived the mission.

After the sensation caused by Glenn's "Naked Lady," Scott Carpenter kept asking Cece if she was going to draw a naked lady for him. As Cece tells the story, Scott had a way of pronouncing naked as sounding like "nekkid." Cece decided to draw a "Nekkid Lady" for Scott too.

The story behind the above drawing is that Scott was a guitar player and one of his favorite songs of the time was "Yellow Bird." The song, with a tropical flair, was very popular in the early 1960's. It was Scott's signature song, which he played frequently to the point where Wally Schirra complained that was all he sang. Cece gave Scott his "Nekkid Lady," but included a guitar along with a jab about always playing the song.

Scott would later express his appreciation of Cece's work on his mission logo.

The third and last mission logo that Cece designed and painted on a Mercury spacecraft was Wally Schirra's Sigma 7 insignia. Wally had come to Cece with the name "Sigma" which is a mathematical term meaning the "sum of." Wally felt that these flights were the sum of all the engineering, designing, testing and contruction that encompassed the entire Mercury Project. Wally wanted to honor all the people that helped him make his flight.

Cece made up a couple of designs for Wally's review. One of those designs was the famous design that included the Greek symbol for Sigma. Wally really liked the fact that Cece came up with the Greek symbol, which is used frequently in the engineering world, instead of the actual spelling of the word. He felt that Cece's design best represented his mission goals to make his flight a most precise flight.

There was no "Naked Lady" on Wally's flight. It turns out that just before Wally's mission, NASA contracted out a job to write and produce a manual on gantry safety. The manual was completed and several hundred copies were produced and distributed to members of the gantry crews. Unbeknowst to NASA, an artist from that art department had airbrushed a topless buxom blond beauty into the middle of a group of serious looking men standing in a gantry elevator demonstrating the proper techniques of riding an elevator. Naturally, the bosses initially suspected Cece as the culpit, but luckily for her, the contract had been given to another company and she was absolved of any wrongdoing. After that incident, Cece gave up the "Naked Lady" tradition.

Cece also volunteered to create the logo for NASA's employee magazine titled Spaceport News. The above cover is from Cece's art portfolio. The cover also shows the design she did for the Christmas edition.
Cece also did some of the artwork for individual articles in the Space News Roundup newspaper. If you were to look closely at the above artwork, then you will see Cece's name on each of the works.

There was an U.S. Air Force squadron of Lockheed U-2 spyplanes based at Patrick Air Force Base in the early 1960's during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Cece even dated one of the pilots of the squadron at the time.

The story behind the above photograph is that the particular U-2 plane shown in the picture was a mechanical disaster. Evidently, the plane had a nasty habit of having a midair malfunction during flights over Cuba. The pilots hated the plane and nicknamed it, "The Olde Lemon." They got Cece to paint a lemon with the nickname on the plane. Every time the plane had a malfunction, it would be shipped back to the Lockheed plant for repair. Lockheed would repair the aircraft and return it, but each time they repaired it they would paint over Cece's artwork. The squadron would call Cece and back she would come to repaint the logo back on the plane.

Nobody knows what happened to that particular plane.

There is a little known story that Cece told me about the U-2 spyplanes out of Patrick AFB. Her boyfriend of the time flew spy photographic missions over Cuba. Upon his return from a mission, he would fly low over Cece's home to let her know that he was home safe after a long night mission over enemy territory. The U-2 jet engine had a very distinctive howling noise that would let Cece know that her boyfriend was returning safe and sound. There was a small problem in that the engine noice generated by the U-2 woke other people up including Alan Shepard. Cdr. Shepard complained to the squadron commander about the noise. The colonel, who knew about the homeward bound signal, advised Alan that this was a national security issue and that there was nothing he could do about it. Cece always enjoyed that little "Gotcha" over Alan and he never knew the real story about the early morning fly overs.

The above letter of recommendation is one of Cece's proudest possessions. The teletype letter is from Gordon Cooper to a prospective employer of Cece's. Just read the letter and you will understand why Cece was so proud of it.

I first learned about Cece from a fellow collector by the name of Bruce Moody, who had found her website that told the initial story of her work. The link for her site is listed below.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cecebibby/personal/index.htm

I had the privilege of meeting Cece at the Sims and Hankow show in Los Angeles in 2004. I had brought Cece my copy of her painting "Out of This World" to the show for her to certify as the artist. Cece had been commissioned by Steven Hankow of Farthest Reaches to paint a limited edition set of paintings showing the insignias she had designed for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd manned orbital missions flown by the United States. I was able to procure the 15th of a planned 15 editions of the painting. The last five copies of the edition being signed by Glenn, Carpenter and Schirra.

Cece wasn't able to have a copy of her painting at the show, so I loaned her my painting for her display. I was pleased to have gotten a photograph of Cece with the painting during the show. She was pleased to have the painting and that is where our friendship started.

At this time, Cece has completed 12 of the 15 limited edition paintings. It appears that the final number will remain at twelve completed "Out of this World" paintings.

Shortly after my return from Los Angeles, I received an email from Cece. Cece asked me if it would be alright to send my painting to her for reproduction as a limited edition signed print. I mailed the painting to Cece and she had it reproduced for print production. I believe the prints are still available through Steve Hankow.

During the 2004 Los Angeles show, Cece dragged Wally, Scott and Gordon Cooper together for a group photograph with her and the painting. Even though she had left Cape Canaveral by the time of Cooper's mission and did not design or paint his mission insignia, she wanted to get the entire group together. It was the last time Wally, Scott and Gordo were photographed as a group. Gordon Cooper passed away a month later.

In 2005, I drove down to New Jersey for the annual astronaut autograph show. Cece asked if I could bring the painting again. I did. At the end of the show on Sunday, she grabbed Wally, Scott and me for another group photograph.

As this initial sketch shows, Cece researched her work. There are several copies of this sketch with notes and ideas written all over them.

Cece turned her attention to animals. Bears, in particular, because she was living in a seasonal community in Northern Georgia. She sold her art and various crafts at a local artist guild in her town during tourist season.

The above painting is from a proposed calendar that showed bears in seasonal events. The scene depicts a teddy bear offering a carrot to an Easter bunny who is showing some age, since his head has sprung off his body after his stitching has worn out. Cece has an interesting sense of humor.

With the onset of Glaucoma, Cece's eyesight started to fail. She switched from the demanding effort required for painting to mosaic work. Mosaic work still required Cece's skill as an artist.

The above picture frame is one such example of her work. In this particular example, Cece used a wooden frame to serve as a base for the grout surface and space pins that she got from various sources. Unfortunately, this is one of only two space pin themed frames that Cece made before she became ill.

One day last year, I received a package containing the above frame and picture of Cece, Scott, Wally and me together with her "Out of this World" painting at the Sims and Hankow show in New Jersey in 2005.

Cece is pictured here at her signing table at the 2006 Sims and Hankow show in San Antonio, Texas. The two space pin picture frames are shown here along with some of her other work including one of her paintings.

As an aside, Cece is holding a small ketchup bottle that Erin and Francis French thought looked like a miniature Mercury spacecraft. Cece painted the word "Ketchup7" on the bottle. The stories, jokes and "gotchas" that occurred at these shows made it such fun for Cece. She had a great time seeing old friends, renewing old acquaintances and meeting new admirers.

We end as we began this tribute. This last picture is of Cece and me at the Atlanta airport in April of 2005. We were heading in separate directions after attending the Astronaut Hall of Fame induction at KSC. We grabbed some poor woman, so she could take a photograph of us together.

We had a wonderful time driving around the Cape and reliving old stories at places like Bernard's Surf, the Patrick AFB Officers Club and Sebastian Inlet. Cece was amazed at the changes that had taken place since the early days at the Cape. Her comment was that in her time, "it was all sand and Palmetto trees."

The times and places may have changed, but Cece still remains a treasured gem of the early days of America's epic journey into space.