Gary Ruddell Exhibit

Readers here may know Gary Ruddell for his science fiction and fantasy book covers. He did the cover art for Dan Simmons’ Hyperion books, among many, many others. In the past six or seven years he’s been turning his attention to gallery work. His latest exhibit:

Gary Ruddell “Small Changes”
Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco
October 5 - 29th

In the late 90s a friend of mine and I took a bike ride down the west coast of America — Vancouver to Tijuana. When we got to San Francisco we called Gary. He and his wife, Nora, invited us to stay for a couple of nights.

He picked us up in an old truck and politely asked if we would be offended by nude paintings in the house. He explained that he had a lot of his personal work hanging and was worried we might find it off-putting. Well, of course I would not be offended...but he did start me thinking that it might be some real tacky stuff, since he was asking. Not at all. He was doing some drop-dead gorgeous paintings..loose, contemplative...large scale and beautiful.

It was a time when he was really trying to focus more on that than his illustration work...his enthusiasm was infectious and it really set the mood for the whole weekend. We had offered to take them out to dinner but instead they had arranged an amazing dinner party. Good times. A real highlight of the trip.

I’ve haven’t worked with Gary much since his switch to the gallery world but I am always tickled to get a new exhibit announcement from him each year or so.