Richard Davies worked with the early space pioneers to launch America’s first satellite, Explorer 1, in 1958 and his imagination stayed forever among the stars.
A research scientist and project planner at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for 33 years, Davies spent much of his later life creating oil paintings of nebulae, moons and the cosmos.
Davies, an Altadena resident, died in May at 95.
His life work, from figurative drawings from the 1960s to spacescapes painted in the last two years, will go on display, for perhaps the last time publicly, on Friday, Dec. 1 at McGinty’s Gallery at the End of the World in Altadena.
“He got up every day and painted, every day,” Helena Davies, his daughter, said.
The two-month exhibit, “Richard W. Davies: So Many Moons,” begins with a party on Dec. 1, what his daughter called a fitting tribute to the fun-loving Davies.
“That’s what he would want it to be,” she said.
Gallery owner Ben McGinty hosted Davies’ first solo show, “Heaven’s on Earth,” in 2015 and following the conclusion, asked him to prepare for another show in two years.
Davies died before the exhibit came together. His daughter and McGinty assembled more than 30 pieces from throughout his life.
“Most of the work has never been seen before,” McGinty said.
As a painter, Davies captured the emotions of universe, the awe explorers would experience upon seeing something like a nebula, McGinty said.
“It’s infinite, and you feel that in his work,” McGinty said.
Davies wasn’t a classically trained painter — he was a scientist. His closest friends were Nobel Prize-winning physicists Kip Thorne and Richard Feynman, who was an avid artist himself.
Davies worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory during the height of the space race.
In a 2008 interview with JPL’s internal Universe newsletter, Davies said the Explorer team was excited and “chafing at the bit” to begin development after the Soviet Union launched its Sputnik satellites in 1957. Davies worked on Explorer’s spacecraft dynamics and post-launch data analysis, according to Universe.
“The Sputniks cut through the core of the entire nation,” Davies said in the interview. “The Soviets were not supposed to be ahead of us.”
He continued at the NASA facility until 1987.
His wife, Gwenda Davies, who served as the curator of education at the Pasadena Art Museum, encouraged her husband to take up drawing and oil painting in 1965. Davies studied under John Altoon and continued painting until the end of his life, according to his family.
Davies did not consider himself to be an artist, he painted for personal enjoyment, not to convey a message, he said in a 2015 interview.
“When I’m painting, the idea behind it is the cosmos, but I’m not trying to paint for anybody but myself,” he said. “If the end result comes out and I like looking at it, it pleases my eye, then I’m satisfied. Now if somebody else looks at it and they like it too, that makes it even more fun.”
In astronomy, he found the perfect intermingling of abstract and reality. He primarily painted in pointillism, the art of using tiny dots to create a larger image. It was a natural choice for pieces full of stars, he said.
“I don’t paint with a brush. I paint with a shish-ka-bob stick,” he said in 2015.
Richard Davies included moons in many of his pieces as a loving nod to his wife, Gwenda Davies. Her paintings featured moons as a result of her conversations with her husband when he focused on the sciences, Helena Davies said.
It became a sort of romantic conversation between the two, according to McGinty.
“Richard W. Davies: So Many Moons” will have an opening reception from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Dec.1, and closing reception from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Feb 3.
All of the work on display will be available for purchase. For more information, call 626-794-4477, or visit McGinty’s Facebook page.