When Matt Turner started painting rockets in his home studio in Whitwick, he never thought they would blast
him all the way to NASA, where he’d be rubbing shoulders with astronauts and some of the brightest stars of the space industry…
For Matt Turner, space technology has always been a unique and awe-inspiring fascination. He remembers seeing his first rocket back in the 90s, and being blown away by the sheer magnificence of the structure before him.
Picture: Matt Turner
“I was studying Art in Moscow when I saw the Vostok 1 at the city’s Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics. I saw it against a very cold winter’s sky and the sun was glinting on it. I remember looking up at this thing and being totally awe-struck. It was such a noble piece of machinery and it just had this optimism about it – this sense of pride and achievement,” he recalls.
“Coming into contact with these marvels of engineering, it’s like being in front of the pyramids -something that huge and significant, is amazing and really humbling…”
Picture: Matt Turner
Matt spent over 20 years working as a teacher – passing on his passion for Art and space technology to his students. However, he left the profession a few years ago in order to concentrate on his original art – something which is capturing the imagination of art lovers across the world.
Several of his pieces have been sold to private collectors in France, Italy, Switzerland and beyond. His paintings have also opened the doors to NASA – a Mecca for space enthusiasts the world over.
Earlier this year, the artist was invited into the organisation’s inner sanctum, to view its private art collection – a selection of spectacular works commissioned to memorialise the ‘Space Race’.
The work, by celebrated American artists like Andy Warhol and Norman Rockwell, sits in a secret bunker on Cape Canaveral. It is not usually open to the public, however Matt was invited as a special guest.
“The collection gets circulated from time to time, but it’s there as a sort of national treasure of the American people,” he tells Pukaar.
“I got to be in there and spend the day with the curators. Now they’re interested in my artwork and have actually set me
on the task of creating more. It’s pretty amazing how it’s all unfolded!”
Matt’s work came to the attention of NASA after he was invited to display his work at an exhibition in Switzerland, which was being supported by the organisation.
At Lausanne’s SwissTech Convention Centre, he found himself in the company of astronauts like Charlie Duke and Dave Scott from the Apollo programme.
Picture: Matt Turner
“The head administrator of NASA was also there and I couldn’t believe I was there hobnobbing with all these amazing people! They couldn’t have been more welcoming,” Matt recalls.
“I must admit I had to pinch myself at times. I thought how
did I end up here?! It’s pretty amazing. Then when you’re back home in Whitwick in the studio and not much has changed, you think ‘did that really happen?!’”
Matt’s passion for space art has certainly opened a lot of doors in his life. He is one of just 200 members of the ‘International Association of Astronomical Artists’ (IAAA) world-wide. This year he was awarded NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program “Imagine Tomorrow” design prize for his Evacuated (Vacuum) Airship concept design for Martian surface exploration. His work was chosen out of hundreds of entries.
His paintings are iconic and often bathed in an array of colours, softening the cold, steely edges of technology and sculpting it into something more beautiful.
Asked about his style and inspiration, Matt said: “I’ve never really been inspired to paint the natural world. It’s so beautiful anyway so trying to paint it feels a little bit of a mockery, whereas trying to take things that are inanimate – maybe
a little bit crude, and trying to turn them into something beautiful in a painting seems like a good thing to do.
“There’s an optimism and a beauty to them, which really inspires me.”
Matt will be exhibiting his work at Leicester’s Space Park during International Space Week – October 4-10. The exhibition will run until December.
To find out more about his work, visit: www.matthewturnerartist.co.uk
By Louise Steel
