The Silicon Valley Luminary Society Portrait Commission 

I am honored to have been under contract with the Silicon Valley Luminary Society to complete an historic series of portraits of Silicon Valley inventors who have made world-changing contributions to science and technology.

The non-profit Silicon Valley Luminary Society was founded by retired patent attorney Harold C. Hohbach to create a series of museum-quality portraits, by time period or industry, portraying Silicon Valley inventors and their inventions. The goal of the project is to inspire the next generation of young people to follow in the footsteps of these pioneers.

Each portrait in the series is painted in oil on a 6 ft x 9 ft linen canvas and includes 5 inventors, along with their inventions, portrayed at the age they were when they made their breakthroughs.

SVLS Inventor Portraits find a Permanent Home in Hohbach Hall of Technology at Stanford University Green Library

My patron Harold Hohbach, President of the Silicon Valley Luminary Society, passed away in December 2017 at the age of 96. Before he passed he made a bequest to Stanford University to fund a museum to hold Stanford's extensive collection of technology and the SVLS  paintings. The first floor of the Green Library on the campus is being retrofitted and remodeled to include “Hohbach Hall of Technology.” All eight of my group portraits will be rotated into the exhibits as they change. There will be at least one up at all times.

I just finished the last two 6-foot by 9-foot Silicon Valley inventor portraits for the Silicon Valley Luminary Society, “Computer Networking and Internet Connectivity Pioneers of Silicon Valley” and “Internet Commerce Pioneers of Silicon Valley”.

“Computer Networking and Internet Connectivity Pioneers of Silicon Valley” – Five Inventors – 72 x 108" oil on linen:
(L to R) Don Nielson, Vint Cerf, Sandy Lerner, Robert Metcalfe, & Larry Roberts

“Internet Commerce Pioneers of Silicon Valley”– Five Inventors – 72 x 108" oil on linen:
(L to R) Pierre Omidyar, Mark Zuckerberg, Jerry Yang, Marc Andreessen, & Larry Page

2015 & 2016 – Inventor Portraits at the Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco

2015 through 2016 all six of these 6 foot by 9 foot group portrait Silicon Valley Inventor paintings were installed at iHangar (innovation Hangar) in the beautiful Beaux Arts building from the Panama Pacific International Exhibition of 1915. These paintings inform and complement their educational display of technology innovation, past and future.

Video Interviews about the Silicon Valley Inventor Portraits

A professional video shot in my studio while I worked on the inventor portraits. It was used as a featured artist promo for Silicon Valley Open Studios.  – 6 minutes long

Terry Guyer describes his oil painting process. He has created large format historical portraits of Silicon Valley Luminary Society scientists displaying their inventions. He gives a tour of his studio and demonstrates his oil paint layering process.

This was the second Talk Art TV interview I was asked to do. Sally Rayn did a great job as the host and the team at the Media Center made it a quick paced and enjoyable segment. Filmed in the Spring of 2011 as I was just finishing the last of the inventor paintings. – 28 minutes long

Darlene Carman Presents... Terry Guyer's Portraits

Published on Oct 16, 2014 – Terry Guyer presents his six historical portrait series of inventors commissioned by the Silicon Valley Luminary Society. This program was aired on KMVT15 Community Media.

Scientists – Five Inventors – 72 x 108" oil on linen: 
(L to R) Glenn T. Seaborg – plutonium, Robert Oppenheimer – atom bomb, Edward Teller – hydrogen bomb, Charles H. Townes – co-inventor laser, Arthur Schawlow – co-inventor laser

Post WWII Inventors – Five Inventors – 72 x 108" oil on linen: 
(L to R) William W. Hansen – traveling wave tube, Russell H. Varian – klystron, Felix Bloch – nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, Charles P. Ginsberg – video tape recorder, Ray Dolby – noise reduction system

Semiconductors – Five Inventors – 72 x 108" oil on linen: 
(L to R) William Shockley – co-inventor transistor, Marcian E. (Ted) Hoff, Jr. – microprocessor, Robert N. Noyce – integrated circuit, Jean Hoerni – planar technology, Gordon Moore – Moore's Law

Computers – Five Inventors – 72 x 108" oil on linen: 
(L to R) Reynold Johnson – magnetic disc storage, Douglas Engelbart – interactive computing and mouse, Alan C. Kay – with GUI computer interface and Alto computer at PARC, Gene Amdahl – air-cooled mainframe computer, Steve Wozniak – personal computer

Biotechnology – Five Inventors – 72 x 108" oil on linen: 
(L to R) Alejandro Zaffaroni – drug delivery system, Carl Djerassi – birth control pill, William J. Rutter – Hepatitus B vaccine, Stanley N. Cohen – recombinant DNA, Herbert W. Boyer – recombinant DNA

Medical Devices– Five Inventors – 72 x 108" oil on linen:
(L to R) Thomas S. Fogarty – embolectomy balloon catheters, Rodney Perkins – LaserScope, John Simpson – angioplasty balloon slidaby mounted on guidewire, Paul Yock – rapid exchange angioplasty catheter, Mir A. Imran – ablation catheter