Welcome to the April news letter. 2009 was indeed by a long chalk, my best year to date and has resulted in the necessity to run with VAT, so the 17 ½% increase had to be added to everything! I have always thought my prices are very competitive compared to other aviation artists, so the prices are still thankfully, very reasonable I think.

There has been a good start to the fresh year with some very nice commissions to do. The O.C. RAF Defence College Cranwell (Aeronautical Engineering) has commissioned me to do a huge canvas celebrating the Aeronautical Engineering heritage of the establishment. It will comprise a significant presence of their black (none flying) Jaguars on the hard standing, with the hangar to the left, and satellite comms. system set up in the background, probably viewed from under the nose of a close up aircraft. There is an important presence of original artwork there, but many of them have been very generously donated with few of them actually representing what is actually at Cranwell, or reflecting what Cranwell does. Hopefully, mine will fill that gap.

I am about to start a large canvas of a Lancaster flying over the Wash. A trip over the Wash to take some appropriate photographs at a suitable hight will add a nice touch to the job for me.

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The image above of a WWI BE2c, was commission specially for a major feature in the WWI historical magazine ‘Cross & Cockade’. Depicting an attack on a French rail yard, major damage was caused, destroying rail stock, an engine, buildings and a turntable. The feature concentrates on the exploits of a series of period events with records that outline the fates of the aircrew, all lost and buried in France. I am amazed at how long it took the designers of these aircraft to decide what an advantage it would actually be to have the gunner behind the pilot!

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Above is a commission for Peter Stell. Peter is an avid collector of my work and now has nine of my pieces. Peter has always wanted a canvas of an ME 109 so I put my thinking cap on and came up with something a little different I think. The aspect of the White Cliffs of Dover are well depicted from the sea looking over the cliffs, but I wanted to do it a little different for him. The severely tilted wings in opposing directions, suggests rapid change of direction and speed, with the classic Spitfire closing in rapidly for the kill. I have very subtly suggested bullet splash disturbance in the water, as a result of previous gun fire from the Spit. I love trying to depict sometimes quite commonly painted types in a slightly different scenario, and one could almost imagine standing on the cliffs watching it all happen.

This is an image I have wanted to catch for ages. The Chinook kicking up all that lovely sand and dust, how did they know where they were going! I still have to add a little more content in the foreground in the form of men and maybe appropriate equipment. It is not a commission so will eventually be for sale. There was a great temptation to add a little too much of the aircraft, but this is actually as they are seen.

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The Gladiator above was commissioned by a Norwegian visitor to Duxford. A simple composition representing the type of the Norwegian Air Force. It has to be completed as you can see but I thought I would just drop it in to let you see. It will probably go into print as will all the above items. What I like to do at this stage is to re paint the sky close to the prop spinner, so the blurred prop blade can be blended into the canvas rather than onto it. The ground has to be added to with further tree and general landscape features.

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Miniatures are coming off the easel steadily. New additions for sale at £170 inc. frame and VAT are – Typhoon, Mustang, Chinook (preparatory oil sketch for large one), Corsair, and Canberra, with Tiger Moth, Dakota, another Spit. Lanc. and Hurricane ( because the others have sold.) The ones that are for sale will be available at any of the shows I am going to this year. Any that are not sold by the end of the year will be sold through the post by mail order.

Other new commissions are an RAF Vampire, the Red Baron, and an under water scene of a crashed Japanese Zero.

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That's it for this time, so unless anyone wants to visit the gallery or give me a ring, I'll speak to you in a couple of months.

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If you require more information about ordering prints please telephone 01507 327681 or email robin@robin-smith-art.co.uk