It’s been a busy time since writing the last newsletter, with a succession of air shows at weekends giving me chance to meet up with customers new and old. You may be aware that at air shows, I try, weather permitting, to paint on site which has always been popular. I have one customer who has at least five of these small paintings. The photos below taken by a visitor to my stand at Duxford air show my latest image of a Gloucester Gladiator, which incidentally was flying at the same event. I particularly like painting silver airframes as they catch all sorts of lovely colours that can some times be totally irrelevant to the colour silver.

I enjoy talking to the younger people as it is at this age children need to be encouraged, and to see the amazed look on some of there faces to actually see a person in the process of painting one right in front of their eyes is a sight to behold!

Thank you to Sten Johnson for taking the time to e-mail the photos.

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There have also been a number of paintings completed and published in print since the last newsletter:

The above image is of a Mosquito Mk 35. It displays the characteristic bulge that allowed the carrying of a 4,000lb. ‘Cookie’ HC blast bomb. The print is titled ‘The Thorn in the Side’ with an image size of 19½” x 13”, and overall size of 23” x 17”. Priced at £65 it is limited to an edition of 500 artist signed. The original is now proudly hanging on the wall of one of the chaps who worked on the example on show at Cosford. More information here.

The image of the Halifax above depicts an example from 413 Sqdn. The Sqdn. motto being ‘The Warriors of the Air’. Accompanied by a Wellington, the aircraft is seen returning home after a sortie over enemy lines, flying over the north coast of the Flamborough peninsula to their home airfield at Croft. The print price is £65 and limited to an edition of 500. Image size is 18” x 13” and artist signed. More information here.

The above image shows a Gloucester Gladiator of 73 Sqdn. This canvas was actually painted on sight at the Duxford ‘Flying Legends’ air show which was really enjoyable as the weather was perfect and allowed the piece to come together quickly. The canvas was a nice easy to handle 16” x 13”, and will result in a print size of 14” x 10". The price will be £55 and limited to an edition of 500 artist signed. The original sold at the moment I told an observer at a previous show that I was gong to do a Gladiator. More information here.

A commission that resulted in the above painting will also be published soon. It may require a little fine tuning as the final approval of the image has to be given. It shows Stanford Tuck’s aircraft with another one just at the point of ignition, kicking out all that lovely mess. I am actually quite keen to do a painting in the future with such an aircraft as this one as the main subject. The print size will be approx. 20” x 13” (image size) and priced at around £65. Limited to an edition of 500 artist signed.

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July has also been a time for entering summer exhibitions. Running at the same time as the Guild of Aviation Artist Annual was an exhibition at the prestigious Carre Gallery in Sleaford Lincolnshire. I entered two paintings, ’Winter of 42’ shown above (original sold) and ‘Shifting Sands’ shown below which won the competition, with a prize of a three page feature about my work in the ‘high society’ magazine Lincolnshire Pride. The original painting is still for sale at a price of £700 framed. The overall size including frame is 30” x 22”. Prints will very shortly be available at a price of £55 and be sized approx. 18” x 14”. They will be limited to an edition of 500 and be artist signed.

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Art tip

Quite a few people asked me how I managed to catch the distance effect of the ground in the Gladiator painting I was doing at Duxford. Well really it is quite simple. All you have to do is to add loads and loads of white paint to the basic colour of the ground. There will be more white added the further up the canvas you go because this is where you want the ground to be at its faintest. This is because you are looking through a much further distance of atmosphere with all the associated pollution of dust etc until as you can see, the ground actually disappears. You will also see in this image there is no horizon line. Well there is but you can’t see it.However, it is very important to know where the horizon line is, as this is the reference datum for anything in the painting that is subject to perspective.

Anything painted on top of this distant background such as an aeroplane of course, will automatically appear much closer to the observer as there is only a short distance of atmosphere to look through, so accordingly the colours will be much crisper and representative of the true colour of the item.

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If you require more information about ordering prints please telephone 01507 327681 or email robin@robin-smith-art.co.uk