One of the more interesting (to me) aspects of the past year's Covid situation has been the necessity to adjust to having much more time at home. My "day job" used to have me on the road for at least two weeks out of every month, usually to far distant time zones. The various lockdowns and bars to travel have given me the chance (after 50 odd years) to sit back and take stock of what I want out of life. My aviation career kept me, to a large extent, from focussing on my painting and drawing as much a I would have liked. Don't get me wrong, I love flying and don't regret a minute of the 23,000+ hours I've spent coaxing various bits of aluminium through the skies over planet Earth. It's just that now that I've had time to breathe (metaphorically speaking) and stepped back a bit I now have the chance to re-prioritise. Even if travel becomes less fraught and gets back to more of what it was pre-covid, I think it's time to move in a slightly different direction. Less time away and more time for art. After all, the art was there well before the chance to fly presented itself. I do find that I'm playing catch up when it comes to painting, as it is only now that I have the time and energy to devote myself to the many tutorials and workshops that the internet makes available. Whether it's colour theory, perspective or any of the other aspects of painting, I am trying to soak up as much knowledge as I can. After all as some Ancient Greek probably said: 'If you stop learning, you start dying.'
One of the things I've noticed from wandering through the various online galleries and web sites related to Aviation Art is the sheer variety of styles. As a technically oriented sort, I've always tried to please the 'rivet counters' out there, but the more I see, the less I think that's the way I want to head. This presents a bit of a quandary, as it means unlearning the habits of a lifetime and trying to loosen up a bit. A case in point is a painting I did a while back. The subject is the DH 108 Swallow, which sadly took the life Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. while being used to evaluate handling characteristics at high speed. On 27 September 1946 TG306 suffered a catastrophic structural failure that occurred in a dive from 10,000 ft (3,050 m) at Mach 0.9 and crashed in the Thames Estuary. After this accident, the subject of my painting, VW120 became the third and final prototype based on the newer Vampire F.5 fighter built at Hatfield. On 6 September 1948, John Derry is thought to have probably exceeded the speed of sound in a shallow dive from 40,000 ft.
Entitled "Shockwave", the painting is intended to be a graphic representation of the impact these early flights had on the quest for sustained supersonic flight, something I have encountered myself in the course of my career. The aircraft is rendered in a realistic manner, but the 'shockwave' is far from it, and I meant for it to represent the 'thin edge of the wedge' so to speak. This has prompted comments that the presentation is not accurate. Sorry guys, but it was never intended to be. It's supposed to invoke a sense of the importance of the DeHavilland programme in the development of high speed flight. The literal image of 'breaking the sound barrier'. Anyway, that was the idea.
This then, is the conundrum: Techno Jack wants the details to be as close to perfect as possible, but Artist Jack wants to evoke emotion and feeling, even if the details are not "photographic" in nature. I marvel at the artists in the Guild and elsewhere who have mastered the techniques that I try so hard to develop. Hopefully, some of it will eventually sink into my thick skull.
I would love to illustrate what I'm talking about by showing some examples of paintings, but as I have not yet contacted any of the artists concerned, I'm going to avoid the pitfalls of copyright violation for the moment. Perhaps in the fulness of time....
On another note, The Guild of Aviation Artists has started to highlight some of the brilliant work of their members with a "Meet the Artist" section on the GAvA Facebook page. The first one is a profile of Ruth Jayne Lewis. Check it out here and visit her Facebook site for some stunning water colour and mixed media works.
https://www.facebook.com/The-Ruth-Jayne-Lewis-Fine-Art-Academy-753290101368263/
Museums and galleries will be opening ( I hope) in the near future. Here are a few of the things that you can hope to see as the year progresses:
The Royal Academy opens on the 18th and has a full schedule planned for the remainder of the year. Go here for details: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk
Pallant house Gallery in Chichester is also planning on re-opening on the 18th and has some interesting exhibitions planned: https://pallant.org.uk
Although Leighton House Museum in Kensington is not currently open, you can browse some of Frederic Leighton's drawings and paintings here: https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/subsites/museums/leightonhousemuseum1.aspx
The Dulwich Picture Gallery is opening on the 19th and is always worth a visit if you're in a London frame of mind: https://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk
For those of you in the Manchester area, the Manchester Art Gallery is opening on the 19th as well and is hosting the exhibition from Grayson Perry's Art Club as well as many other great works: https://manchesterartgallery.org/visit/welcomeback/
Grayson Perry's own web site is also worth a look in: https://www.graysonsartclub.com
Have a great weekend and keep doing arty things.