The Digital Art of James Plaxco
Astronomical Art Gallery
Welcome to the Astronomical Art Gallery. The Astronomical Art Gallery is all about the art of astronomy. The pictures in the Astronomical Art Gallery are a combination of photorealistic and impressionistic interpretations of both real and imagined planets, moons, stars, and nebulae.
My motivation for creating astronomical art is to share my fascination of the many wonders of the universe with others. In fact I frequently use such art to illustrate the public presentations that I give about space and astronomy as a Solar System Ambassador for the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. With respect to our attempts to understand the universe around us, Buckminster Fuller put it nicely when he said that "Everything you've learned in school as obvious becomes less and less obvious as you begin to study the universe."
In addition to the Astronomical Art Gallery, there is also a Moon Art Gallery featuring art whose subject is our Moon and a Space Art Gallery devoted to the human exploration of space.
Clicking on either the picture thumbnail or the picture's name will take you to that picture's gallery page.
An artistic impression of the surface of Titan
Sand ripples on the surface of Mars
Painting of a stellar supernova
Analyzing NGC4414, a galaxy in Coma Berenices
Planet Riding the Stream of Stars
A blue planet for a blue universe
A Moon and nebula using a pastel palette.
The real Mars digitally hand colored.
If you would like to be informed when new art is added to the Astronomical Art Gallery, please send an email asking to be added to the Astronomical Art Gallery Update list to:
Nature proved beautiful when it wore the appearance of art; and art can only be termed beautiful, where we are conscious of its being art, while yet it has the appearance of nature.
Kant, Critique of Aesthetic Judgment
