Breathless Space

"I looked and looked but I didn't see God. "
- Yuri Gagarin

Today is the 50th anniversary of the first time a man travelled through space. Just the thought that we as a people have been able to not simply soar above the Earth itself, but to actually reach into space gives me such nerd-shivers that I had to paint something to commemorate the occasion.

'Sides. Gagarin is kind of awesome.

The background - around the painting - is Svenska Dagbladets feature-article about Anders Sparrman (1748-1820), a Swedish explorer, naturalist and advocate of equal rights for all ethnic groups. I found it kind of fitting.

... Unfortunately, my scanner devoured some of the colour-variations in the background; there's supposed to be some purple in there, to represent the boundary between our atmosphere and space itself.

Medium
Acrylic on newspaper.


(If there was ever any doubt that I am a tremendous nerd, you can lay them to rest now - I just spent half an hour looking for photo-references of Gagarin's space suit. It's curiously top-heavy - all wide in the shoulder and baggy, which made his legs and feet look very small, IMHO.)