Earth Will Be Their New Home, upcycled vintage painting

“Earth Will Be Their New Home”
upcycled vintage painting by Heather Castles

This piece has been a labor of love… Battlestar Galactica 2003 is probably my favourite science fiction series, and I’ve wanted to do something special to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the series.

With much of the series filmed in B.C., this vintage painting with its distinctly British Columbia feel worked perfectly for a Cylon invasion. As I painted in this swarm of Cylon raiders, I imagined an alternate story where the Cylons actually did make Earth their new home.

I love the play between the vintage art and the science fiction storyline... painting these raiders into this old painting creates the illusion that it really happened all those years ago, and it was captured as part of our past. It plays with the cyclical concept from the series that "it has happened before... it will happen again!" So say we all!

The original vintage painting was painted by Canadian artist Rose Schul (1922 - 2010.) The canvas was a little saggy in places so repaired that and cleaned it.  It had a couple scuff marks which I wasn’t able to remove and have decided to see as added charm. The frame had been stripped of its decorative trim, so it came to me with jagged nails poking out of the inner frame. I’m in the process of having it framed in a floating frame in natural wood to give it a modern finish.

Original artwork 101.5 x 51 cm (40 x 20 inch) canvas

Unframed, the frame in the photo is an example