John Jude Palencar (born February 26, 1957) is an American illustrator and fine artist, who specializes in works of

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

, and horror. In 2010, he was given the Hamilton King Award. His highly detailed work is described as containing a rich language of symbols and archetypes, which are left open to interpretation by the viewer.

Early life

Palencar was born in

Fairview Park, Ohio Fairview Park is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. A suburb of Cleveland, it once formed part of the historical Rockport Township, along with the area of West Park and the suburbs of Lakewood and Rocky River. It borders Clevela ...

. He developed an interest in the subject matter of horror and science fiction early in life; dressing up as an alien with a homemade custom latex masks and exhibiting a fascination in both scaring others and being scared himself. In the third grade, his family would move to

Middleburg Heights, Ohio Middleburg Heights is a city and a suburb of Cleveland in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. The population held steady at approximately sixteen thousand throughout the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Government Middleburg Heig ...

. He would win his first award in art in fifth grade with a three-colour block print for the Cleveland’s Plain Dealer newspaper calendar contest. He went on to attended Midpark High School. It was in high school that the artist came under the art training of Frederick C. Graff, who up until today is a established award winning artist, primarily in

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

. After winning numerous art awards and selling a few paintings in high school, Palencar decided to pursue a career in art. He attended the

Columbus College of Art and Design Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD) is a private art school in Columbus, Ohio. It was founded in 1879 as the Columbus Art School and is one of the oldest private art and design colleges in the United States. Located in downtown Columbus, CCAD ...

(CCAD) on scholarship, receiving a BFA degree in 1980. During his college years he worked for the American Greetings Card Company and freelanced, establishing a list of regional and national clients in editorial, advertising and corporate art. As a senior at CCAD he won the top cash award at the Society of Illustrators Student Exhibition and was also presented with a scholarship to the Illustrators Workshop held in Paris, France.

Illustration career

While still in college at Columbus College of Art and Design, Palencar exhibited work at the

Society of Illustrators The Society of Illustrators is a professional society based in New York City. It was founded in 1901 to promote the art of illustration and, since 1959, has held an annual exhibition. History Founding The Society of Illustrators was founded on ...

and the work on display attracted the attention of

Byron Preiss Byron Preiss (April 11, 1953 – July 9, 2005)Byron Preiss
at the

The result would be an early and prominent assignment for the artist in 1982 with the commission to illustrate The Secret, a puzzle book produced by

Byron Preiss Byron Preiss (April 11, 1953 – July 9, 2005)Byron Preiss
at the came shortly after college when working for

Time-Life Books Time Life, with sister subsidiaries StarVista Live and Lifestyle Products Group, a holding of Direct Holdings Global LLC, is an American production company and direct marketer conglomerate, that is known for selling books, music, video/DVD, ...

on The Enchanted World Series. The young artist would contribute to many books in the series, including ''Legends of Valor''(1984), ''Ghosts''(1984) and ''Night Creatures'' (1985). His work has since appeared on hundreds of book covers for just about every major publisher in the U.S., and in over thirty countries around the world. The artist has created cover art for such authors as H. P. Lovecraft,

Ursula Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the ''Earthsea'' fantasy series. She was f ...

Marion Zimmer Bradley Marion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley (June 3, 1930 – September 25, 1999) was an American author of fantasy, historical fantasy, science fiction, and science fantasy novels, and is best known for the Arthurian fiction novel ''The Mists of Avalon'' an ...

P.D. James Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, (3 August 1920 – 27 November 2014), known professionally as P. D. James, was an English novelist and life peer. Her rise to fame came with her series of detective novels featuring t ...

Charles de Lint Charles de Lint (born December 22, 1951) is a Canadian writer of Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese ancestry. He is married to, and plays music with, MaryAnn Harris. Primarily a writer of fantasy fiction, he has composed works of urban fantasy, cont ...

, R.L. Stine,

Octavia Butler Octavia Estelle Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006) was an American science fiction author and a multiple recipient of the Hugo and Nebula awards. In 1995, Butler became the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. ...

David Brin Glen David Brin (born October 6, 1950) is an American scientist and author of science fiction. He has won the Hugo,Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

. New York Times Best Selling author,

Christopher Paolini Christopher James Paolini (born November 17, 1983) is an American author and screenwriter. He is best known for ''The Inheritance Cycle'', which consists of the books ''Eragon'', ''Eldest'', ''Brisingr'', ''Inheritance'', and the follow up short ...

, a fan of John's work, named the lead character's birthplace "Palancar Valley", after John in his NY Times Bestseller,

Eragon ''Eragon'' is the first book in ''The Inheritance Cycle'' by American fantasy writer Christopher Paolini. Paolini, born in 1983, began writing the novel after graduating from home school at the age of fifteen. After writing the first draft for a ...

for which John also painted the cover, as well as creating the type treatment that would be used for the remaining three books in the series.

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

owns three works by the artist from the

Dark Tower series ''The Dark Tower'' is a series of eight novels, one short story, and a children's book written by American author Stephen King. Incorporating themes from multiple genres, including dark fantasy, science fantasy, horror, and Western, it des ...

. Palancar has also created editorial illustrations for

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

Smithsonian Magazine ''Smithsonian'' is the official journal published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The first issue was published in 1970. History The history of ''Smithsonian'' began when Edward K. Thompson, the retired editor of ''Life'' maga ...

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

, and Nat. Geo. Television as well as worked on entertainment projects for

Lucas Arts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a lar ...

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

, and

Vivendi Universal Vivendi SE is a French mass media holding company headquartered in Paris. Widely known as the owner of Gameloft, Groupe Canal+, Havas, Editis, Prisma Media, Vivendi Village and Dailymotion, the company has activities in television, film, video ...

. In 2004, Palencar became the Artist in Residence at the Cill Rialaig Arts Centre, in County Kerry Ireland. In 2007, Underwood Books would publish ''Origins:The Art of John Jude Palencar'', a 128 page tribute to the artists work up until that time with a foreword by

In 2008, Palencar was awarded the

Spectrum Award for Grand Master The Spectrum Award for Grand Master has been awarded annually since 1995 by the Spectrum Fantastic Art Advisory Board. A Grand Master, as Arnie Fenner (SFA Advisory Board member) has explained, is an artist who has worked for at least twenty years ...

, which is an annual award presented to an artist who has worked for at least twenty years at a consistently high level of quality and has left his or her mark on the field of contemporary science fiction, fantasy and horror artwork. In 2012,

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles, and is the largest publisher of Chinese scien ...

editor David Hartwell was passing by the Tor art department and noticed a painting by Palancar leaning against the wall, Hartwell asked art director Irene Gallo what the painting was for and was told that the work had no specific commission. Hartwell used the work to initiate The Palencar Project, in which five writers, L.E. Modesitt, Jr, Gene Wolf,

Michael Swanwick Michael Swanwick (born 18 November 1950) is an American fantasy and science fiction author who began publishing in the early 1980s. Writing career Swanwick's fiction writing began with short stories, starting in 1980 when he published "Ginungagap ...

Gregory Benford Gregory Benford (born January 30, 1941) is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is professor emeritus at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. He is a contributing editor of ''Reason ...

and

James Morrow James Morrow (born March 17, 1947) is an American novelist and short-story writer known for filtering large philosophical and theological questions through his satiric sensibility. Most of Morrow's oeuvre has been published as science fiction ...

all wrote short stories based on the painting. The same painting would later be used as the cover for ''The One-Eyed Man'' by L. E. Modesitt Jr. The

George R.R. Martin George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin; September 20, 1948), also known as GRRM, is an American novelist, screenwriter, television producer and short story writer. He is the author of the series of epic fantasy novels '' A So ...

2019 ''

A Song of Ice and Fire ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' is a series of epic fantasy novels by the American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin. He began the first volume of the series, ''A Game of Thrones'', in 1991, and it was published in 1996. Martin, who init ...

'' wall calendar would be illustrated by Palencar.

Working process

Initial ideas are sketched quickly, to provide an art director with a general idea of how a finished work might appear. Once an approval for an idea is in hand, the artist creates a detailed rendering in pencil with subtle shading on a plate finish board. The final Palencar paintings are executed in acrylic, but in a watercolor fashion, in which initial thin layers are laid down as a wash first. Multiple layers and subtle colors are then woven together and then the artists begins to introduce opaque and semi opaque washes. Working in this manner borrows technical approaches from oil, watercolor and egg tempera mediums.

Personal life

Palencar lives in Medina Township,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

with his wife Lee who is an art teacher at Highland High School in Medina. The couple have two boys, Ian and Kit. Kit, also an artist teaches drawing and painting at the

University of Akron The University of Akron is a public research university in Akron, Ohio. It is part of the University System of Ohio. As a STEM-focused institution, it focuses on industries such as polymers, advanced materials, and engineering. It is classified ...

. Palencar maintains a personal collection of skulls and articulated skeletons that serve as inspiration and reference for many paintings.

Bibliography

Exhibitions

Palencar has exhibited in numerous group shows in galleries, colleges and universities throughout the United States.

Solo

*''Between Worlds'', Canton Museum of Art, 2019 *''Images of Ireland'', National Museum, Dublin *University of the Arts, Richard C. von Hess Gallery, 2008

Group

*La Mars Art Center, ''Exhibition of the American Watercolor Society'', 2020 *Society of Illustrators, ''Masters of The Fantastic'', 2019 *

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) b ...

, ''Unveiling Visions: The Alchemy of the Black Imagination'', curated by John Jennings and Reynaldo Anderson, 2015 *Kosart Studios & Gallery, ''Maleficium: Dark Art Exhibition'', 2015 *

Butler Institute of American Art The Butler Institute of American Art, located on Wick Avenue in Youngstown, Ohio, United States, was the first museum dedicated exclusively to American art. Established by local industrialist and philanthropist Joseph G. Butler, Jr., the museum h ...

, 2013 *

Allentown Art Museum The Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley is an art museum located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1934 by a group organized by noted Pennsylvania impressionist painter, Walter Emerson Baum. With its collection of over 19,000 wo ...

, ''At the Edge: Art of the Fantastic'',curated by Patrick and Jeannie Wilshire, 2012 *Nucleus Gallery, ''At the Mountains of Madness:A Tribute to the Writings of Lovecraft'', 2010

Awards

*Gold Medal,

American Water Color Society The American Watercolor Society, founded in 1866, is a nonprofit membership organization devoted to the advancement of watercolor painting in the United States. Qualifications AWS judges the work of a painter before granting admission to the soc ...

, for ''The Dark Line'', 2020 * Gold Medal (Institutional),

Spectrum A spectrum (plural ''spectra'' or ''spectrums'') is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without gaps, across a continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of colors i ...

27, 2020, for ''The Stranger: The Seventh Faith'' * Silver Medal (Institutional), Spectrum 26, 2019, for ''The Nights Watch'' * Hamilton King Award,

, 2010, for cover of ''Muse and Reverie'' by

*Gold Medal, Society of Illustrators, 2010 * Spectrum Grand Master Award, 2008 * Gold Medal (book), Spectrum Awards 1996, for ''Blood Debt'' *Gold Medal (book), Spectrum Awards 1995, for ''Becoming Human'' *

Chesley Awards The Chesley Awards were established in 1985 by the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists to recognize individual artistic works and achievements during a given year. The Chesleys were initially called the ASFA Awards, but were later r ...

Winner 2006, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1995

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palencar, John Jude 1957 births Living people American speculative fiction artists People from Fairview Park, Ohio American illustrators 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters Fantasy artists Horror artists Artists from Ohio Science fiction artists Columbus College of Art and Design alumni 20th-century American male artists