John Harris

John Harris (born July 29, 1948, in London) is a British artist who painted the covers of three Star Wars books: Dark Tide I: Onslaught, Dark Tide II: Ruin and Death Star. His preliminary painting for Death Star was purchased by George Lucas for his personal collection.

Harris began painting at age fourteen, and he graduated from a Fine Arts program at the University of Exeter in 1970. In either 1984 or 1985, he was invited by NASA to witness and paint a Space Shuttle launch; the resulting painting hangs in the Kennedy Space Center and is part of the Smithsonian collection.

Harris began to paint book covers in the 1980s, and his artwork has appeared on works by authors such as John Scalzi, Ben Bova, Jack McDevitt, and Orson Scott Card. Harris has twice been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist, and in 2015 he won the Chesley Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.

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