“Creating a moment that communicates emotionally with the viewer is the essence of Gregory Manchess’ artwork.”

That quote, from the biography on the website of artist Gregory Manchess, is the perfect beginning to a cursory understanding of what makes the artist, and his work, so special.

I have had the pleasure of meeting Gregory Manchess on two occasions, at the first and second Spectrum Fantastic Art Live events. He is an incredibly generous and approachable man whose art defies easy description. Unless of course you go with the obvious route and point the viewer to the works and let the works speak for themselves.

On both occasions of seeing his original paintings, I’ve been struck by how incredible is his vision. Gregory Manchess paints with a loose style and when you see his work up close there is an almost abstract quality to each piece.

As you step back, it feels as if the individual brush strokes shift and the painting comes into focus. For those of us who cannot create in that way, it is humbling to see how the sum of the parts coalesce to create a such lush, powerful whole. Some of his pieces are quite large and the contrast in viewing them from various distances evokes a great deal of emotion, not the least of which is awe.

It is impossible to look at a Gregory Manchess painting and ignore the obvious passion with which he captures the imaginings of his mind on canvas. And the obvious skill, as well.

Last year for both Boskone and Spectrum Fantastic Art Live 2, Gregory Manchess created a series of small 5″ by 5″ helmet paintings.

On the Muddy Colors website, he wrote: “I wanted to paint pieces based specifically on my love of the genre. So, once again, it led me to painting helmets! The hardware of science and science fiction. But I couldn’t just paint one or two. I wanted to paint a whole slew of them, starting with astronauts, of course, then moving through the ages, all the way up to bubble helmets. The list was quite long.”

You can see both sets of helmets here, and here.

I fell hard for these paintings the moment I saw him hanging them up in his booth at SFAL2. I was there early on that Friday helping John Picacio set up his booth and I had a feeling that these small, beautiful pieces would go quickly. The moment the show started I headed out to my truck to drop off my power drill and on the way stopped by Gregory Manchess’ booth, drill in hand, and laid claim to one of these (it is a robot painting that can be seen in the upper right hand corner of this picture).

It was my first original painting purchase and every time I look at it I marvel again at the way in which he works.

I have appreciated the work of Gregory Manchess for many years now. His appreciation of the genre is apparent in the imaginative works he creates. And the work that he created in 2013 makes a bold statement when it comes to nominating artists for this year’s Hugo Awards.

“When I was a kid, given the opportunity to choose which toy set to own–the cowboys and ranch, the GI soldiers, the knights and castle, or the spacemen and moon-base–I took the moon-base every time. Like the helmets I’ve shown here, I’ve always been excited by the astronaut image: vintage, real, or futuristic.”

Before closing I had to include one more image. This one was commissioned for an excellent short story by author Michael Swanwick entitled “House of Dreams” that was published on the Tor.com website in November of 2013. You should check it out.

Gregory Manchess will be a guest at Spectrum Fantastic Art Live 3, May 9-11 in Kansas City, MO. He has been known to break out the tools of his trade and paint live on the convention floor.

It is a sight you won’t want to miss.

I want to give a special shout out to Irene Gallo at Tor Books for quickly answering a Gregory Manchess, Hugo-related question I posed to her on Facebook this morning. Thank you, Irene!