Peter Thorpe

I have been an illustrator and designer since 1976. My main work has been
editorial illustration including book covers of which I’ve done close to 400 to date,
mostly for large publishers and noted authors. But, since childhood, I’ve had a
deep interest in space science, exploration and colonization. That led me to
serve as the Creative Director of the Space Frontier Foundation from 1988 to
2008. It was during that time that I started working on space art including my
Rocket Paintings series.

I believe that the most important venture of our time is the human expansion into
space. I want to help inspire as many people as possible to understand the
beauty of space and to appreciate the necessity of human exploration and
settlement of space.

As a commercial illustrator I am used to producing bright, punchy, design heavy
art. I bring this same mentality to my space art. The splashy, brush-stroke
backgrounds of my space paintings seem appropriate considering the energies
within the vacuum of space, known as zero-point energy, and electromagnetic
radiation. While these are not visible to the naked eye, they do exist and I
envision them as energetic abstract motion.

I create my space paintings with acrylic on canvas or board, and work almost
exclusively from imagination. Dynamic design is most important as iconic images
influence people in a fundamental way. I use all colors of the spectrum to
emphasize the variety of energies and possibilities of our universe.

See my work by clicking Art in the menu above.