Aviation Art

lpolpo22 · October 1, 2003, 9:44am

Have any favorite aviation artist? I find the talents of people like Nicolas Trudgain, Roy Grinnell, and Keith Ferris incredible but my favorite is Robert Taylor, especially his “Thunderbolt Strike” www.chesterfieldarmament.com/taylor/taylorgallery/taylorgallery.htm

Anonymous · October 1, 2003, 10:23am

GREAT site, lpolpo22 ! Robert Taylor is one of my faves.
I also like the art of Koike Shigeo (many Hasegawa covers) Here’s his site.
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/airplane/museum/Ecl-pln2.html

Anonymous · October 1, 2003, 10:40am

One of my favorites is Mark Waki. I met Mark and his brother Matt many years ago at a Salt Lake City model meeting. Both are first rate artists and modelers!!! Here is his web site. http://www.markwaki.com/

Jeeves · October 1, 2003, 11:01am

Stan Stokes did one of my all-time favorite prints of a SBD-3 diving on the Akagi at Midway-- it shows it from behind where you see the bright red dive flaps and the rear gunner just going in for the ride. Spectacular!

lpolpo22 · October 1, 2003, 7:37pm

Hey Jeeves, are you sure about Stan Stokes? that pic is listed on the Robert Taylor Site.

Anonymous · October 1, 2003, 8:05pm

Hey Guys

What about Dru Blair

Keyworth · October 1, 2003, 8:18pm

Stan Stokes, Nick Trudgian, Keith Ferris, Gil Cohen, Robert Taylor, Sam Lyons, and I have a few prints by John Ficklen.

Jeeves · October 1, 2003, 9:16pm

Heya lpolpo22…

Yup-- it’s on page 88-89 of the Ballard book “Return to Midway”…and it’s here:

http://www.stokescollection.com/default.cfm?SearchImage=1&ImageID=1000000000000029

maddafinga · October 1, 2003, 10:19pm

Dru Blair rocks! He’s one of my favorites, and I tend to enjoy pencil drawings more than painting. I love hyperrealisim though. I’ve been thinking about doing some avaition art, but just haven’t gotten around to it. I do have a pic of a buddy’s dad in ww2 sitting in his F6F though.

http://members.cox.net/maddafinga/artwork_of_josh_allen.htm

madda

lpolpo22 · October 1, 2003, 11:01pm

OK Jeeves, not the same painting but definitely the same subject. Could someone have been looking over someone else’s solder?

leemitcheltree · October 2, 2003, 3:08am

Wow
Some pretty amazing art, there. Sorry I haven’t got any artists to add to this list.
Just wanted to say how impressed I am with the links you’ve detailed.
Cheers,
LeeTree

wildwilliam · October 2, 2003, 6:16am

Rikyu Watanabe

or isn’t that the kind of art you’re talking about?

ed.

Jeeves · October 2, 2003, 7:28am

I should also mention this guy:

http://mysite.verizon.net/nealart/

He does pencil sketches and not paintings-- but he does really nice work-- and it’s cheap too! I have the Dauntless, Lightning, and Wildcat- and am anxiously awaiting the Avenger! They look great in my new home office…

Anonymous · October 2, 2003, 7:48pm

As an art enthusiest i like most of those mentioned although I’m not overly enthused by Nicolas Trudgian. One artist that has sofar not been given a gurnsey is the late Terrence Cuneo. More noted for his railway paintings he nevertheless painted some very good aviation pictures. My grandchildren love his work. Not for his work but because he always painted a mouse in his work and they spend hours looking for it. It is a good way of getting them to see and eventually appreciate.
Incidently i have a print of Schlache! (or what ever is the German word for Chechmate!) showing Big Beautiful Doll shooting up a German locomotive.
Dai

BlackWolf3945 · October 2, 2003, 9:29pm

I don’t think I have a true fave. A sentimental favorite would be Keith Ferris, but only because he’s the first Av Artist I was exposed to. I actually really dislike some of his work, but there are many Ferris pieces which I continually marvel at.

I’ve seen several Ferris originals but never got an opportunity to inspect one close up until last year when we took our annual trip to the Region 1 convention, this time in Sturbridge Mass. During the weekend we visited the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks Connecticut where there’s a Ferris original entitled “The Palm Sunday Massacre”. The painting is 7 x 5 feet and depicts 57th FG P-40’s in combat on that famous day of April 18th, 1943. I was absolutely stunned at the surface quality of this piece. Smooth as silk! Many oils I’ve seen have a varying degree of texture and surface relief, but this was absolutely beautiful.

At the risk of starting an argument, I’m surprised at not only how much bad art there is out there, but how much of it actually sells. Although perhaps there are collectors out there who collect it just because it’s there. Same as model collectors, I guess. I wouldn’t build a Frog kit if you payed me, but I’d love to collect 'em…

Anyhoo, alotta people like Robert Taylor’s stuff and, on the whole, I’m one of them. But I find many faults in his work, mostly in the areas of shape and contour representation. Nicholas Trudgian has a similar style to Taylor, but his work also exhibits the same faults as mentioned above, albeit not as frequently. Regardless, Taylor and Trudgian are two of my favorites. They both have outstanding talent in the area of composition and the overall look of their work is excellent. Very atmospheric and most of their paintings give you a feeling of having been there or a desire to have been there. Very inspiring stuff, on many levels.

Stokes is another fave, although his paintings tend to be a bit more vibrant and… almost cartoonish in appearance. This isn’t a bad thing by any means, he’s just got a very distinctive style.

I also like Shigeo Koike, and was going to provide a link, but Pix beat me to the punch! If you haven’t checked it site out, do so. Alotta the images on that site would do very nicely for wallpaper. But some of them are resized for use on the website. If there’s an image you’d like to see a bit larger, just get the URL of the image (right-click, properties) and then copy and paste the image URL into your browser. Some of them will come up as larger images. Anyhoo, his work is sometimes nothing more than a simple portrait of an aircraft, but very inspiring nonetheless.

Someone mentioned Watanabe, I love his profiles. Especially those from the old series of large format books published by several different publishers. The ones I have are by Crown and Arco. These are the same books that make up the “Great Book of WWII Airplanes”, that 2-ton monster you see for cheap at Borders and Walden and Barnes & Noble every Christmas. (Okay, maybe not THAT cheap and not EVERY Christmas…) I also used to collect the inserts from the old Otaki kits. Those were way-cool for decorating the workshop.

My favorite profile artist would have to be Tom Tullis. There’s just no equal out there to this guy’s work. Well, few equals! LOL

Man, I could go on and on but I ain’t gonna. I’m too tired…

Fade to Black…

lpolpo22 · October 3, 2003, 7:45am

QUOTE: Originally posted by blackwolfscd

I don’t think I have a true fave. A sentimental favorite would be Keith Ferris, but only because he’s the first Av Artist I was exposed to. I actually really dislike some of his work, but there are many Ferris pieces which I continually marvel at.

I’ve seen several Ferris originals but never got an opportunity to inspect one close up until last year when we took our annual trip to the Region 1 convention, this time in Sturbridge Mass. During the weekend we visited the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks Connecticut where there’s a Ferris original entitled “The Palm Sunday Massacre”. The painting is 7 x 5 feet and depicts 57th FG P-40’s in combat on that famous day of April 18th, 1943. I was absolutely stunned at the surface quality of this piece. Smooth as silk! Many oils I’ve seen have a varying degree of texture and surface relief, but this was absolutely beautiful.

At the risk of starting an argument, I’m surprised at not only how much bad art there is out there, but how much of it actually sells. Although perhaps there are collectors out there who collect it just because it’s there. Same as model collectors, I guess. I wouldn’t build a Frog kit if you payed me, but I’d love to collect 'em…

Anyhoo, alotta people like Robert Taylor’s stuff and, on the whole, I’m one of them. But I find many faults in his work, mostly in the areas of shape and contour representation. Nicholas Trudgian has a similar style to Taylor, but his work also exhibits the same faults as mentioned above, albeit not as frequently. Regardless, Taylor and Trudgian are two of my favorites. They both have outstanding talent in the area of composition and the overall look of their work is excellent. Very atmospheric and most of their paintings give you a feeling of having been there or a desire to have been there. Very inspiring stuff, on many levels.

Stokes is another fave, although his paintings tend to be a bit more vibrant and… almost cartoonish in appearance. This isn’t a bad thing by any means, he’s just got a very distinctive style.

I also like Shigeo Koike, and was going to provide a link, but Pix beat me to the punch! If you haven’t checked it site out, do so. Alotta the images on that site would do very nicely for wallpaper. But some of them are resized for use on the website. If there’s an image you’d like to see a bit larger, just get the URL of the image (right-click, properties) and then copy and paste the image URL into your browser. Some of them will come up as larger images. Anyhoo, his work is sometimes nothing more than a simple portrait of an aircraft, but very inspiring nonetheless.

Someone mentioned Watanabe, I love his profiles. Especially those from the old series of large format books published by several different publishers. The ones I have are by Crown and Arco. These are the same books that make up the “Great Book of WWII Airplanes”, that 2-ton monster you see for cheap at Borders and Walden and Barnes & Noble every Christmas. (Okay, maybe not THAT cheap and not EVERY Christmas…) I also used to collect the inserts from the old Otaki kits. Those were way-cool for decorating the workshop.

My favorite profile artist would have to be Tom Tullis. There’s just no equal out there to this guy’s work. Well, few equals! LOL

Man, I could go on and on but I ain’t gonna. I’m too tired…

Fade to Black…I couldn’t agree with you more Blackwolf. I didn’t want to put myself in the position of critic but I’m sure even Picasso - no, wait - poor example, I’m sure even Rembrant had one or to slips of the brush. (I wonder what a P-47 would look like if Picasso had painted it?) I don’t know about you but I’ve book marked all of these sites and would like to see more. I once saw a print of what I believe was a Spad that had crash landed in an allied trench and the pilot was having a cup of coffee with the doughboys. The name of the print was “Mud in your eye”. I saw it in a local hobby store called A.I.R. who, I think, at one time made decals. I fell in love with this print and should have bought it when I first saw it but A.I.R. sold it a long time ago. Are you familiar with it?

lpolpo22 · October 3, 2003, 7:49am

QUOTE: Originally posted by lpolpo22

QUOTE: Originally posted by blackwolfscd

I don’t think I have a true fave. A sentimental favorite would be Keith Ferris, but only because he’s the first Av Artist I was exposed to. I actually really dislike some of his work, but there are many Ferris pieces which I continually marvel at.

I’ve seen several Ferris originals but never got an opportunity to inspect one close up until last year when we took our annual trip to the Region 1 convention, this time in Sturbridge Mass. During the weekend we visited the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks Connecticut where there’s a Ferris original entitled “The Palm Sunday Massacre”. The painting is 7 x 5 feet and depicts 57th FG P-40’s in combat on that famous day of April 18th, 1943. I was absolutely stunned at the surface quality of this piece. Smooth as silk! Many oils I’ve seen have a varying degree of texture and surface relief, but this was absolutely beautiful.

At the risk of starting an argument, I’m surprised at not only how much bad art there is out there, but how much of it actually sells. Although perhaps there are collectors out there who collect it just because it’s there. Same as model collectors, I guess. I wouldn’t build a Frog kit if you payed me, but I’d love to collect 'em…

Anyhoo, alotta people like Robert Taylor’s stuff and, on the whole, I’m one of them. But I find many faults in his work, mostly in the areas of shape and contour representation. Nicholas Trudgian has a similar style to Taylor, but his work also exhibits the same faults as mentioned above, albeit not as frequently. Regardless, Taylor and Trudgian are two of my favorites. They both have outstanding talent in the area of composition and the overall look of their work is excellent. Very atmospheric and most of their paintings give you a feeling of having been there or a desire to have been there. Very inspiring stuff, on many levels.

Stokes is another fave, although his paintings tend to be a bit more vibrant and… almost cartoonish in appearance. This isn’t a bad thing by any means, he’s just got a very distinctive style.

I also like Shigeo Koike, and was going to provide a link, but Pix beat me to the punch! If you haven’t checked it site out, do so. Alotta the images on that site would do very nicely for wallpaper. But some of them are resized for use on the website. If there’s an image you’d like to see a bit larger, just get the URL of the image (right-click, properties) and then copy and paste the image URL into your browser. Some of them will come up as larger images. Anyhoo, his work is sometimes nothing more than a simple portrait of an aircraft, but very inspiring nonetheless.

Someone mentioned Watanabe, I love his profiles. Especially those from the old series of large format books published by several different publishers. The ones I have are by Crown and Arco. These are the same books that make up the “Great Book of WWII Airplanes”, that 2-ton monster you see for cheap at Borders and Walden and Barnes & Noble every Christmas. (Okay, maybe not THAT cheap and not EVERY Christmas…) I also used to collect the inserts from the old Otaki kits. Those were way-cool for decorating the workshop.

My favorite profile artist would have to be Tom Tullis. There’s just no equal out there to this guy’s work. Well, few equals! LOL

Man, I could go on and on but I ain’t gonna. I’m too tired…

Fade to Black…I couldn’t agree with you more Blackwolf. I didn’t want to put myself in the position of critic but I’m sure even Picasso - no, wait - poor example, I’m sure even Rembrant had one or to slips of the brush. (I wonder what a P-47 would look like if Picasso had painted it?) I don’t know about you but I’ve book marked all of these sites and would like to see more. I once saw a print of what I believe was a Spad that had crash landed in an allied trench and the pilot was having a cup of coffee with the doughboys. The name of the print was “Mud in your eye”. I saw it in a local hobby store called A.I.R. who, I think, at one time made decals. I fell in love with this print and should have bought it when I first saw it but A.I.R. sold it a long time ago. Are you familiar with it?

Sorry Blackwolf some how I got posted inside your Quote.

BlackWolf3945 · October 3, 2003, 2:28pm

Ah, ‘Mud in Your Eye’ is a painting by Jim Dietz. He’s another fave. No matter what the actual subject of the painting is, the main point of interest is always the human element in Dietz’s paintings.

Fade to Black…

gar26 · October 3, 2003, 3:04pm

I’m awe struck at how great alot of this art is.

lpolpo22 · October 3, 2003, 3:17pm

That’s the one Blackwolf and again you are right on the mark.

Rich