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• Post #4374590

  THE END OF NATURE V (2000) Acrylic on Canvas - 36" x 24" 

The title is meant as a double-entendre of sorts, something I enjoy doing with my personal work. 1/2 #fineart #personalvisions #imaginativerealism #endofnature

• Post #4360304

  EMPEROR OF THE WASTELANDS (1993) 
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 32" x 20" 

For the Coldfire Trilogy, I set all the main characters within a framework of strange and exotic trees. 1/3 #fantasy #illustration #csfriedman #coldfiretrilogy #dawbooks

• Post #4283749

  THE CLEARING (2004) Oil on Panel - 28” x 18” This interior illustration for The Dark Tower (Book 7) by Stephen King is a scene from a chapter entitled “In the Haze of Green and Gold,” which set the tone for the color scheme. 1/2

• Post #4242208

  ISLAND (2007)
 Acrylic on Panel - 30" x 40" There is a long tradition of using the concept of “island” as a metaphor for the world as a whole, as in “This Island Earth.” This painting—the first in a series of works employing that metaphor—began as a meditation on the necessity for humanity to explore beyond the reaches of our immediate environs in space. 1/7 #fineart #personalvisions #imaginativerealism

• Post #4199844

  THE NIGHT FACE (1977) Acrylic on Illustration Board Early in my career, Ace commissioned me to reimagine covers for reissued novels by Poul Anderson, including a book previously titled LET THE SPACEMEN BEWARE! 1/3 #sciencefiction #illustration #poulanderson #acebooks

• Post #4164456

  PRUDENCE (1996) Acrylic on Panel - 12” x 11” The classical notion of Prudence is an important theme to me, as it was to the ancient Greeks. Possessing knowledge of the Past, and a desire and ability to order the Present so as to bring about a more ideal Future. https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/prudence/ #fineart #personalvisions #imaginativerealism #virtues

• Post #4115384

  In this week’s newsletter, Michael answers questions about Meat Loaf, his affection for the Myst video games, and covers he would like to have illustrated: https://theartofmichaelwhelan.substack.com/p/july-q-and-a-with-michael-whelan-11e

• Post #4088551

  SKIMMING THE RED ZONE (2021) Acrylic on Board - 9 ½” x 17 ¼” I often see pictures in my mind when I glance at accidental shapes created by brush marks or overspills in the studio. 1/2 #leftoversandpalettegremlins #sciencefiction #illustration

• Post #4064035

  LEGENDS: THE GUNSLINGER (1998/2000) Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 36" x 24" Stephen King doesn't describe the Dark Tower in the early books of the series, but many of the main characters experience dream visions of the object of their quest. 1/3 #fantasy #illustration #stephenking #gunslinger #darktower #rolanddeschain #torbooks

• Post #4036072

  THE END OF NATURE (1998) Acrylic on Gessoboard - 28” x 22” The first in what became a series of paintings about our relationship with nature. 1/2 #personalvisions #imaginativerealiism #fineart

• Post #4011610

  CHANUR'S VENTURE (1984) Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 28" x 18" 

The idea is that in the space behind the door there’s a firefight or some sort of trouble going on, and the heroine is trying to “keep a door closed” to the tumult, so to speak. 1/4 #sciencefiction #illustration #cjcherryh #chanur #hani #dawbooks

• Post #3986534

  WING (1992)
 Acrylic on Canvas -42" X 60" 

I was the Artist Guest of Honor of the Australian National Science Fiction Convention in Sydney in 1992. After the convention, my family and I spent some time traveling around the country. ¼ #personalvisions #imaginativerealiism #fineart

• Post #3912997

  HATANI (1984) Acrylic on Board - 28” x 18” An inverted tale of first contact told from the perspective of an alien race. 1/3 #illustration #sciencefiction #cjcherryh #dawbooks

• Post #3892091

  FUZZY FEDERATION (1979) Acrylic A decade after his death, Ace acquired rights to H. Beam Piper’s catalogue and began republishing classic paperbacks originally released years earlier. 1/3 #sciencefiction #illustration #hbeampiper #acebooks #fuzzies

• Post #3858936

  EQUANIMITY (2000) Oil on Panel - 12” x 9” As with so many others, this is a virtue I feel a lack of in my own life. The figure is meditating that equanimity is found in the contemplation of the fullness of time. 1/2 #personalvisions #imaginativerealism #fineart #virtues

• Post #3832687

  DESTINY'S ROAD (1991)
 Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 30" x 40" After painting 6 concepts in an effort to distill Larry Niven's novel into one image, I settled on a mountaintop perspective that gave me the chance to offer an aerial view of the road and its environs. 1/7 #sciencefiction #illustration #larryniven #torbooks

• Post #3765030

  In this weeks newsletter, we celebrate a milestone with a retrospective featuring all 22 dragon covers Michael painted in his career: https://theartofmichaelwhelan.substack.com/p/a-legacy-of-dragons

• Post #3717516

  AMAZONS 2 (1981) Acrylic on Crescent Illustration Board - 24” x 16” Cover for a DAW anthology featuring women characters written (mostly) by female writers. 1/3 #fantasy #illustration #dawbooks #anthology

• Post #3652194

  Coming full circle, the painting did end up being used for the cover of THE YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION: EIGHTH ANNUAL COLLECTION edited by Gardner Dozois (St. Martin's Press). 6/6 https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/sentinels/

• Post #3650691

  SENTINELS (1988)
 Acrylic on Canvas - 22” x 33” 

After more than a decade of continuous illustration work, this was my first non-commissioned painting. Who can resist imagining a peaceful world where children are enjoying nature and the symbols of war are falling into ruin? 1/6 #fineart #personalvisions #imaginativerealism

• Post #3605465

  In this week’s newsletter, continuing a conversation with Terry Booth, tackling questions of the purpose of art and the role of the artist. https://theartofmichaelwhelan.substack.com/p/sightseers-and-shamans

• Post #3582803

  DARK FORTUNE (2017) Acrylic - 12” x 9” A dark smudge on palette paper suggested a hooded figure...and it turned into the Man in Black from Stephen King’s opus The Dark Tower. https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/2017-leftover-7/ #fantasy #leftoversandpalettegremlins #stephenking #darktower

• Post #3557540

  THE SONGS OF DISTANT EARTH (1986) Acrylic - 20” x 31” After running through several preliminary concepts, I arrived at an approach to this book cover that felt perfect to me. The scene I imagined would be some time before the events described in the book. 1/8 #sciencefiction #illustration #arthurcclarke #delreybooks

• Post #3506212

  For this Whelan Wednesday, we’ll be revealing the next painting in the 2026 Leftovers & Palette Gremlins gallery. This small original work of SF will be available in our shop July 1 at 11am ET. A preview is now available for our paid supporters: https://theartofmichaelwhelan.substack.com/p/2026-l-and-pg-3-original-art-preview

• Post #3490718

  DOORWAY TO THE WEST (2006) 
Acrylic on Panel - 12” x 9” 

Another search for the light. Creating the illusion of texture in paint, the process of actually painting it, can be an act of meditation. If it were not so, the painting of all those rocks would be torture, especially for someone like me with an impatient nature. https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/doorway-to-the-west/ #fineart #personalvisions #imaginativerealism #portals

• Post #3452949

  In today’s newsletter, we bring to a close a not-quite secret project that has spanned decades as we feature an extended gallery of remarques from THE GUNSLINGER by Stephen King: https://theartofmichaelwhelan.substack.com/p/there-are-other-worlds-than-these

• Post #3390658

  THE FINAL ENCYCLOPEDIA (1984) Acrylic on Primed Masonite - 30” x 22” I used myself as a model for this. Audrey took my picture on the driveway with a Polaroid as I posed for the figure. 1/4 #sciencefiction #illustration #gordonrdickson #torbooks

• Post #3382022

  HIGHGATE MIST (2010) Acrylic - 10” x 8” Looking for sketching subjects, I started to seek out sculptures of angels and enjoyed using them as models. 1/2 #personalvisions #imaginativerealism #fineart

• Post #3374235

  THE SMOKE RING (1988) Acrylic - 32" x 48" I was already fascinated with Larry Niven's free-fall environment, and then in this book I was especially taken with his descriptions of life in and around the “Clump.” 1/8 #sciencefiction #illustration #larryniven #ringworld #delreybooks

• Post #3367232

  For today’s newsletter, we revisit the cover for Sean Russell’s THE INTITIATE BROTHER. Plus an exclusive digital wallpaper of SHONTO’S GARDEN for our paid subscribers: https://theartofmichaelwhelan.substack.com/p/revisiting-shontos-garden