MARTIAN HILLSIDE

24" x 20" by Rick Sternbach. Original acrylic painting on illustration board. According to the artist, this was done around 1974, before the first Viking lander mission to Mars. A rare and very early piece considering Sternbach's first cover illustration was published on the October 1973 issue of Analog magazine.

Rick Sternbach is a legendary artist in a variety of genres who is best known for his space illustrations and his work on the Star Trek television series. With four other artists, in 1981 Sternbach helped found the non-profit International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA), to arrange projects that promote and foster space art.

Sternbach helped define the look of the 24th century that would be used throughout The Next Generation and the series that followed it, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. Props such as the phasers, tricorders, PADDs and the communicator badge were all based on his designs.

During his time in the Star Trek art department at Paramount, Sternbach was also responsible for a number of starship designs including the Cardassian Galor class starships, the Klingon Vor'cha and Negh'Var class starships and Federation starships such as the Prometheus class, the Dauntless, the Nova class and the USS Voyager itself.

When Voyager finished its seventh year in 2001, the producers decided they wanted a different look for the prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise that was set in the 22nd century, so Sternbach did not transfer over to the Enterprise art department, concluding his fourteen-year employment at Paramount Studios.

Sternbach returned to Star Trek in 2002, when he produced control panel designs and signage for the Enterprise-E and Romulan starships in Star Trek Nemesis.

As of 2015, he is also a member of the board of advisers for the Hollywood Science Fiction Museum.

1977 Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist
1978 Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist
1981 Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Creative Technical Craft