Triptych: Work In Progress

I've started work on a triptych.  So far I've only roughed in the background.

 I intend to add more detail and a much more interesting foreground.  Sometimes the trick is to know when to stop.  The basic viewpoint is worlds near one limb of a galaxy.

Unlike most of my paintings this is not done on canvas.  Rather I'm using gesso prepared Masonite mounted on wooden frames.  This should give the finished work a sharp, well dressed look and none of the three final pieces will require a frame.

 I'll publish more on this piece later.

X-ray Jet Galaxy

A few years ago astronomers decided that galaxies emitted jets from their poles.  At the time that I learned this I was working on a large painting of a galaxy.  It seemed a little out of balance and the addition of a jet from the galaxy's pole fixed the problem.  Since then it has been determined that black holes reside in the center of all galaxies.  The jets, actually emitted from the black hole, are what we once called quasars and exist in the early life of the galaxy.  Our own galaxy no longer emits such an intense beam.  I'm amazed that my painting still holds some scientific validity.

The large canvas was stretched over a circular frame, rounded on the edges so that it required non additional framing.  I was only able to do a few paintings on this type of canvas before my source dried up.  I've never been able to find these canvases again.

Castor

This is the painting that I used as the background for this blog.  Castor is not actually a single star as the ancients who named it thought.  It's actually three binary star systems, literally six stars whirling around each other.  When I read that I decided to paint the picture you see.  I doubt strongly that this image is in any way accurate of Castor's true appearance.  The individual component stars are probably never this close to each other but he image that came to mind was too great to resist and this is the painting that resulted.

The spaceship is a nod to my love of science fiction.  I placed it in the shadow of a handy planetoid thinking that this might be a place that a science crew studying the system might select to shelter themselves from the tremendous radiation such a place must have.

I love the idea that the stars are different colors.  The universe is vibrant with color but with the ever present pollution we on Earth have little appreciation for it.  Castor is a variable star due to the constant shifting of positions of its six component stars.