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The double-A4 Concorde Gallery calendar is now available! 

Please see below for sample pages.

The calendar is available from the Store page.

Some of the Concorde community in the UK have noted that there is a shortage of Concorde calendars around this year. I have remedied the problem with a calendar of my Concorde artwork, available now on this website.

The calendar is currently available in A4 size. As of next week it will also be available in double-A4 size.

 

Please visit the Store page for details.

For my latest painting, I have turned away from Concorde briefly because of terrible events in the wider world.

Very early on 24 February 2022, Russian forces launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine. Several cities have been pounded by artillery, and other major sites, including the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, have been attacked. Hundreds of civilians have been killed or injured, and so far (10 March) more than 2 million people have fled the country.

In addition to the human victims, one further casualty was the world’s only operational Antonov An-225, known as “Mriya” (“dream” in Ukrainian). Built in Ukraine in the 1980s, this was the world’s largest freight aircraft; in fact, with a wingspan of 88 m (289 ft) and a cargo hold volume of 1,300 m3 (46,000 cu ft), it was the world’s largest aeroplane. Mriya carried the Soviet space shuttle Buran on her back – the structures to support the shuttle could still be seen on the top of the fuselage. More recently, the aircraft was used to carry humanitarian aid to the victims of the earthquakes in Haiti (2010) and Japan (2011), and in the last couple of years she delivered medical supplies from China to other countries to bring relief in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now the people who built and operated Mriya need help themselves.

Mriya was undergoing maintenance at the airport at Hostomel when the airport came under attack. By 27 February it was confirmed that the aircraft had been destroyed. This news was a shock to aviation enthusiasts across the world – including me. It is not clear whether Mriya can ever be rebuilt, and with the relentless assault on Ukraine’s human population, she has to be left as she is for now. 

Yet I still have one last humanitarian mission for Mriya. I produced the painting shown below in just 2 weeks, as a way to make sense of the destruction. I am offering the original for sale. Fred Finn, a good friend of mine in the Concorde community, has family connections in Ukraine as his wife is Ukrainian. Fred’s wife is collecting funds to give the Ukrainian Embassy in UK for protective equipment and medical supplies. I have put my painting up for auction on eBay to raise funds for them; details can be found here:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325094044493

If there is sufficient interest I can also produce prints of the painting, again with profits going to Fred and his wife to provide aid for Ukraine. 

In this way I hope to help Ukrainians in danger and distress, and to bring something of benefit out of Mriya’s sad demise.

Concorde Gallery has had a mention in the latest issue of Aviation News (Key Publishing), currently available in UK newsagents. This issue of the magazine is focusing on supersonic air travel – both the past and the possible future.

The issue features an article by Katie John on the history of Concorde, with a short biography. In addition, one print of The Flagship (see below) is being offered as part of a selection of Concorde-themed prizes.

For further details, visit the Aviation News website: https://www.key.aero/aviationnews/latest-issue

 

On Sunday 25 July Concorde Gallery will be participating in the 2021 TAS Aviation Memorabilia Fair at the Runway Visitor Park, Manchester Airport. The event will take place under the wings of Concorde G-BOAC (Alpha Charlie).

Concorde Gallery is offering the framed original of The Flagship (see below) for sale, with all proceedings going to preservation organisation Heritage Concorde for the maintenance of Alpha Charlie.

There will also be chances to buy prints from Concorde Gallery and postcards of The Flagship.

 

Today, 2 March 2019, marks the 50th anniversary of the first ever Concorde flight – a milestone in aviation history.

To commemorate this unique event, I have re-issued the print of my pencil drawing showing the prototype with her Chief Test Pilots: André Turcat for the French and Brian Trubshaw for the British.

This is my tribute to an unparalleled feat of aviation and technological skill.

The print is available from my online store.

 

Yesterday, I went on a Guild of Aviation Artists sketching day at AeroExpo, a trade event at Wycombe Air Park. It was a step into the unknown for me as I had my first go at drawing helicopters.

For years I’d been meaning to try my hand at drawing these strange contraptions, but had always been distracted by fixed-wing aircraft. Yesterday, though, I was surrounded by helis in all shapes and sizes, and there was no longer any excuse for not having a go.

I started with the Bell 407. I know nothing about helicopters but this looked to me like an elegant machine and I liked the tilt of its rotor blades. To stay out of the way of other people walking past, I asked the people on the stand opposite  if I could set up my easel on their little bit of astroturf. They kindly agreed.

This is the result of my efforts – my first ever go at a helicopter.

While I was working, the people on the stand came and had a look over my shoulder. They asked me if I would draw their helicopter, which was standing on the astroturf beside the stand. I agreed. Then, the people opposite, from Multiflight.com, asked if I’d do theirs as well!

I spent the whole day drawing these three helicopters. As soon as I’d finished the first pic, I went straight on to the next. Various people came to have a look at what I was doing, and said very complimentary things about my sketches. I was also photographed and filmed by the people doing the publicity for the AeroExpo event.

This is the second sketch – the Robinson R66 Turbine, owned by HeliAir.

By the time I got on to the third sketch, the Agusta Westland 109 Grand, the wind had picked up so I was having to hang on to my easel with one hand. The Multiflight people seemed delighted that I was doing their bird; the aircraft’s owner also came over to have a look. I didn’t manage to finish this one as the rain started, but here is the result:

The sketching day ended with all of us setting out our work in a dry corner of one exhibition hall, so we could compare notes. I was pretty tired at the end of the day, but very pleased with what I had done and the reaction to it. I was also grateful to the leader of our GAvA regional group, Richard, for getting us in to the event.

I painted this watercolour in 2016 to celebrate the work of Heritage Concorde and the Duxford Aviation Society with Concorde G-AXDN. After the aircraft had spent nearly 30 years still and silent, the volunteers in these groups have brought many of the aircraft’s systems – and the famous nose – back to life.

G-AXDN (construction number 101) was one of the two “pre-production” aircraft produced just after the prototypes first flew. (The other such aircraft was the French F-WTSA, or “02”.) This aircraft first flew on 17 December 1971. She did a lot of the test flights carried out to refine various elements of Concorde’s design for use in the production aircraft. During her 574 hours of flight she reached a record Mach 2.23 and a maximum height of 63,700 ft – a feat that was never equalled even by the production Concordes. She finally retired to Duxford on 20 August 1977.

My painting shows the stunning result of the Heritage Concorde and DAS volunteers’ work. Concorde is seen here lowering the nose and visor, while DAS volunteer David Hands explains to spectators what is going on. It took more than two years of painstaking work to get the aircraft to this status. The nose and visor movements now take place for public display on the last Sunday of every month.

I have made prints to commemorate this sterling achievement; these will shortly be available on my Store page.

In September, I went to a talk at the Royal Aeronautical Society entitled “Beneath the skin”, given by Tim Hall of Flightline Arts, who spent most of his working life as a cut-away illustrator for Flight International. He gave a fascinating talk about the history of technical cut-away drawings, particularly drawings of aircraft. This kind of work is some way away from what most aviation artists do, but even in this field there are different styles of expression.

The first technical cut-away drawings were produced over 100 years ago, in cycling magazines, to explore the technical details of bicycles for laymen. The “father” of technical aviation illustration was Max Millar, who produced his first drawings for Flight magazine in 1912 and continued working until beyond the Second World War. He coined the term “engineer artists” (with the emphasis on “engineer”) to describe himself and his colleagues. His drawings, in pen and wash, were accurate and easy to read. Another eminent cut-away artist was James (Jimmy) Clark, who worked from the 1930s to the 1960s on The Aeroplane. His approach was different from Millar’s – while working quickly and in immense detail (often going to factories and working from life), he used to exaggerate or emphasise certain details to aid the viewer’s understanding. A third master illustrator, forever associated with Flight and then Flight International, was the late Frank Munger, who produced his first work in the 1940s – and whom Tim described as “unflappable” and “with a photographic memory”. (As I say elsewhere, I copied Frank Munger’s superlative cutaway of Concorde – my effort is shown below.)

Tim described the astonishing way in which the cut-away artists worked. They would visit the aircraft factories and do their initial sketches from life on “detail paper”. They drew freehand, often not even using an easel – just holding a sheet or pad in their hands. After about a week of amassing details they would return to the office to produce the ink drawing. They used mapping pens, which Tim said give a better, more variable line than the later Rapidographs. Their ink drawings were also done freehand; the only tools used were a straight edge (which they used even to draw ellipses) and dividers (to plot proportions).

From the 1990s the Flight International illustrators started using Photoshop, although apparently their finished artworks could often overload the memory on the printers’ computers! Tim ended by describing today’s computer-aided techniques – he now draws with a mouse, and lays in tints electronically.

Tim had brought along a selection of original cut-away drawings from throughout the history of Flight International and its predecessors Flight and Aeroplane. I was amazed at the way the work was minutely accurate but still artistically expressive, with no hint of being “dead” or “mechanical”. The quality was even more impressive since the work was done freehand. I spoke to Tim Hall afterwards and had a look at his amazing website, and he very kindly sent me a copy of his book, Beneath the Skin. As a lover of fiddly detail, I thoroughly enjoyed my introduction to this fascinating subject.

For aviation artists, certain aircraft are overwhelmingly popular as subjects. The clear winner is the Spitfire. Just about everyone produces a Spitfire painting at some point – the Guild of Aviation Artists features about 900 Spitfires in its on-line gallery. Another hugely popular subject is, of course, Concorde, with almost 100 paintings shown on the Guild site.

This year I decided to have a go at a third perennial favourite – the Vulcan. I began this painting in late 2013. I chose a marine format to complement the broad wingspan. I set the aircraft against a stormy background, and showed it looming against a moody sky, and discharging its own clouds of smoke and steam. I set it at an odd angle – with the Vulcan taxying and the nose wheel pivoted, so the aircraft is just about to swing round and come directly at the viewer.

This was a mash-up of various actual aircraft, including the Vulcan at Southend, as well as photos of XH558 at Farnborough. In addition, when I was up at East Fortune in November, I did some sketches from life of the Vulcan there (although my fingers nearly froze in the process!). I finally finished the painting around March. To echo the sound of the famous engines, I named it “Howl”.

 

 

I had this painting beautifully framed, by David Lloyd of Greenwich, and entered it for the 2014 GAvA exhibition. I took a gamble, putting this one forward as my only submission. Sadly, it was rejected (by a small margin, I was told) – but I still enjoyed my encounter with the mysterious Delta Lady.