Click on image to enlarge in color. For questions regarding sales or commissions, send an email to me at phil@philsmith.us.

I paint in both acrylic and oils, though I just started using oils in February 2007. The painting entitled Proterozoic represents my first attempt to use oil paints. Oils, I have learned, are fantastic when it comes to blending, and are indeed forgiving. I've always been told these things about oils from various accomplished artists, but for some reason was quite intimidated by the medium, perhaps because it is, after all, the medium of the masters. I learned very quickly that acrylics are actually more difficult to use as they dry quickly (retarders can be used, however).

I think I will try producing an underpainting in acrylic washes to establish composition and local color, then use oils over that once dry. I am also intrigued by the technique of grisaille, which is a painting rendered completely in black and white which can then be covered in various glazes. This particular approach was used by Titian and Vermeer to great effect. And while it sounds quite arrogant, I do want to try painting a few subjects in a manner that is reminiscent of Rembrandt, whose paintings often employed chiaroscuro, a masterful use of light and shadow to enhance shapes in dramatic ways. He, along with other artists, also created sfumato, the "smokelike" blending of edges that gives a painting an atmospheric and moody appearance.

I will continue to use acrylics, particularly in pieces with an abstract quality demanding the use of unique media such as sand, glass beads, paper, and metallic media.

Non-space paintings:

>Happy Place
(with Bermet Imankulova)

>Pam and Larry's Excellent Adventure
(Courtesy Pam and Larry Luskin)

>710 Medical Squadron Badge
(Courtesy 710 MDS)

>Iron Bird, B-52H (60-062)
(Courtesy USAF)

>Sod Buster, B-52H (61-023)
(Courtesy USAF)

Cover Art:

>2005 Commercial Space Transportation Forecasts (FAA)

>2004 Commercial Space Transportation Forecasts (FAA)(Courtesy Bev Girten)

>NASA ASCENT Study Final Report Executive Summary (2003)
(Courtesy Derek Webber)

>NASA ASCENT Study Final Report Volume 1 - Main Report (2003)
(Courtesy Derek Webber)

>NASA ASCENT Study Final Report Volume II - Appendices (2003)
(Courtesy Derek Webber)

>Futron Space Tourism Market Study: Suborbital Space Travel (2003)
(Courtesy Derek Webber)

>Futron Space Tourism Market Study: Orbital Space Travel and Destinations and Suborbital Space Travel (2003)
(Courtesy Derek Webber)

>2003 Commercial Space Transportation Forecasts (FAA)
(Courtesy Ron Kohl)

>2002 Commercial Space Transportation Forecasts (FAA)(Courtesy Gary P. Barber)