Frank Hettick was born and raised on the Oregon coast. His interest in space art began at 13 when he received a Christmas gift of “The Conquest Of Space”, a now-recognized classic and very collectible book of astronomical art. The fantastic and realistic illustrations encouraged Frank to begin creating his own space scenes.
He attended high school art classes and began painting his unusual scenes in oils. By the time he graduated from Tillamook High School in 1955 he had completed several dozen oil paintings and although he found career success in other directions over the next 50 years - his interest in space art was always in the back of his mind.
In 2001 Frank and Shirley sold their long-held specialty instrument company and considered retirement – but only briefly. When they began discussing their future plans Frank had said he wanted to restart his long-delayed art efforts.
Having only done a few catalog covers and some personal art pieces during their long intensive career of raising a family (three daughters now spread worldwide) and making their former company successful – he now wanted to ‘prove – perhaps only to myself - that I could still paint!
Frank notes: “My mind was just filled with scenes I had been storing up over the past 50 years – and I was anxious to get to it!
“We began printing my art pieces on canvas in 2003 as limited edition art prints and that was the real breakthrough for sales to collectors and fans! Recently the magazine and book art editors, TV-specials, art galleries, and collectors have begun calling!
He recalls “I have always been a perfectionist regarding details in my art - probably triggered by my exposure to those early space scenes in my youth - and by painting this way I believe I can produce scenes that although no human will likely ever visit or see them in person – excepting through my efforts – it will bring the excitement and awe a bit closer to the vision we all had at one time.”
Although he has no driving ambition towards a commercial reputation in space art, he has magazine covers and illustrations, book-covers, TV-appearances, and gallery shows plus two international competition First Place Awards this past year to his credit. Through his art he hopes to encourage people to find the same sense of awe and wonder that he has for our universe!
Frank concludes “Being retired and without the need to bring home a paycheck every month allows me the freedom to paint in my scenes the hope we had for space exploration in those early formative years! I confess that the space ship designs and exploration methods have not always turned out the way we had envisioned in the 1940’s-1950’s but I do believe that era was a great period of excitement, wonder, encouragement, challenge, and lofty goals for many of us!
“And through my art I hope to recapture those times and views in such a way that our children and grandchildren may share that same excitement I had growing up in the 1950’s – and I want to do it in a way that people will look at my art someday and say ‘That’s not the way it has turned out to be - but it’s certainly the way we dreamed it might have been – and Frank says he will be very satisfied with that!
Frank Hettick is a member of the International Association of Astronomical Artists, The Mars Society, The National Space Society, and The Planetary Society.
In 2004 he won First Place in The Mars Society International Art Competition. In 2005 he was awarded First Place in the joint Planetary Society-European Space Agency (ESA) International Art Competition to depict the Cassini-Huygen space probe landing on Titan, a moon of Saturn.
This space artist is not available for sale.
Credit:
NASA & ESA
