Every year an artist from the Guild of Aviation Artists (GAvA) is invited to create a painting to publicise the Annual Exhibition in London. It’s a great honour, with the image being used for banners, adverts, catalogues, etc.
I was delighted to be chosen to create a suitable painting in 2018. However there was a proviso – that I portray the RAF’s 100th Anniversary! A most important subject for the Guild and the Royal Air Force.
How was I to show the history in a simple way? To portray every type of aircraft that had seen service was impossible. I elected to show just 4 representative aircraft. Making the choice was almost as difficult as painting them! Camel, Spitfire, Hunter and F-35 Lightning, to show an aircraft taking the story of the RAF into the future.
With limitations due to the differing proportions of marketing material, I kept the subjects in the centre. One idea came to me early on – using a graduation from sepia to colour to show the passage of time. I really enjoyed the process and then to see it used so many ways!