Tor’s art director Irene Gallo reports the death of artist Darrell K. Sweet on 5 December 2011. Born on 15 August 1934 in Highland Park, New Jersey, he was Guest of Honor at the 2010 World Fantasy Convention. He was nominated for the Hugo Award in 1983, and for four Chesley Awards (Artistic Achievement in 1990, 2005, and 2011, and paperback cover in 1995). He may be best remembered for illustrating Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series and Piers Anthony’s Xanth novels.
In addition to his speculative fiction illustration (which included thousands of book covers), he was a history buff who painted frontiersmen and the American West, as well as landscape paintings.
Gallo quotes his son: “He lived his life as an artist—seeing the beauty that surrounds.”
Gallo collects some of Sweet’s art in this post. For more of his art, see his own web site. The ISFDb has a significant listing of his published work on this page.