It's heartening to see that things are opening up once again and that we can get out and about. The first GAvA sketching day has taken place and others are scheduled in the coming months. Now if only the British weather would cooperate a bit more. I seem to recall that last year at this time, it was considerably warmer and more conducive to plein air painting and sketching. As I've been working all year with either water mixable oils, gouache, or occasionally acrylics, the massive volume of water descending from the sky has not been exactly my cup of tea when it comes to outdoor work. Not to mention the 50kt winds howling off the channel. Oh well, it is churlish of me to complain about the weather when I have a cosy studio to hide in.
As I sit in said cosy den, I've been having a think about the different subjects that aviation artists have been concentrating on of late. Of course here in the UK, there is a lot of focus on the rich aviation history of these sceptered isles. That being said, one well-known artist of my acquaintance made a remark to the effect that; "If I ever have to paint another Spitfire, I'll go crazy." Of course, he's still painting Spitfires because that's what we do. We paint what other people want to see...or do we? I must admit that I've done a reasonable number of commissions that just had to be the way the customer wanted them. Who wouldn't? As far as painting for my own pleasure though, I tend to dwell on lesser known events and aircraft, but then I've always been a bit rebellious. That's why I was so often in trouble with my various commanding officers.
Being involved with volunteering at the Tangmere Military Aviation Museum for the past 10 years has kindled an interest in other museums and their displays. I've managed to visit and produce drawings at several during sketching days with GAvA, but I think I might take this whole museum display thing more seriously and try to portray not just the aircraft, but the way that they are curated and looked after. I have loads of sketches and preliminary drawings from past visits and now might be the time to dwell on the "behind the scenes" subjects found there. It's a thought, anyway. It came to me when I was playing around with gouache and creating the picture below, showing volunteers at the DeHavilland Museum pushing one of their mosquitoes out of the hangar. Virtually all of the paintings I've seen of Mossies have been of an operational nature, which I'm sure most potential customers are interested in. Originally, I only chose that scene in order to become familiar with the medium and didn't really think about the subject matter except in terms of shapes, values, etc., and working with a limited palette. Now that I have had some time to think about it, I might pursue this line of inquiry.
Volunteers at the DeHavilland Museum moving their Mosquito out of the hangar.
I'm sure that we all have subjects that are a bit off the beaten path, but hold a place in our thoughts. Perhaps it's time to let the imagination off the leash, just a bit, and see what happens.
As far as things going on farther afield in the art world:
Stella Grace Lyons has a talk on Constable scheduled. I have always found these talks to be quite informative and entertaining. You can check it out here:
The Guild of Aviation Artists continues its highlights of members: This week it's David Young. You can check out his Bio and a selection of his works here:
https://www.facebook.com/475344522608871/posts/2115639838579323/
Tate Liverpool has a good selection of the photos of Don McCullin, whose work covering conflict and wars from the 60s on is extremely poignant. I remember his works from the Vietnam era.
The National Gallery is open for business and has an interesting looking exhibition on Copernicus: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/conversations-with-god-jan-matejkos-copernicus?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NG_2021May_CopernicusEvents_NM&utm_content=version_A&promo=114561
The Royal Academy is gearing up for its summer show, which begins on 22 September. You can get the details here: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/summer-exhibition-2021
Now get out there and Paint, you lot.