Oil on Canvas, 24 x 11 inches Status: For Sale
“Dawn Launch to Mars”
(Boca Chica, Texas)
Close-up pics:
The piece features Starship #24 on Booster #8 at the pad. The system which is set to go into orbit for the first time in 2023 and then onwards on to the Mars Mission in a few years!
I’ve definitely been one of those individual’s getting excited about space travel again along with SpaceX’s successes the last few years. I drove 8 hours down from Dallas in November 2022 to SpaceX’s Starbase literally right on the Rio Grande in Boca Chica by Brownsville, Texas.
I also goofed working on this months before the initial launch and only on watching the first launch did I realize I had painted “Mechzilla’s” platform arms as closed and while they needed to be in the open position. Whoops. So back to the easel for a couple hours to fix the “chopstick” arms so the scene would be more realistic.
Timelapse creating the piece:
I enjoy capturing atypical scenes and paintings of space travel is certainly a rare topic for oil painters.
I arrived at night and took a few pics and video at in the dark and then returned early the next morning to take more daylight pics and start an en plein air piece off the trunk of my car. After about an hour sketching and starting the underpainting we ‘space tourists’ were asked to leave so SpaceX could run some tests without anyone getting hurt. The system did make a few hissing noises moving gasses about so I didn’t have to be asked twice.
