Fly Past

Hawker Hunter and Lightning II.

Throughout the exhibition, the

style of brushwork, in oils, acrylics,

gouache and other mediums varied

greatly, but many artists were

obviously inspired by the centenary.

A pleasing inclusion was RAF 100

by GAvA President Michael Turner;

the painting was commissioned by

the RAF Museum and was on loan

for the duration of the exhibition.

FlyPast sponsors the £1,000

Fellows Award for Excellence, and

this year the accolade went to Peter

Sumpter for his evocative mixed-

media painting Fishing from a

Pony, depicting crewmen aboard a

Goodyear Pony blimp indulging in a

spot of angling while anchored over

water. Peter also won the Jon Moore

Best Group Award, for his total of

six works entered in the show.

It fell to the medium of watercolour

to secure the Aviation Painting of

the Year title, in the form of Rupert

Cordeux’s A Work in Progress...a

melancholy but beautifully

rendered study of

a scrapped F-4

Phantom II.

My personal

favourites

included

David Young’s

atmospheric

oil When I

Was a Boy

I had a

Dream, portraying a lad with his

model aeroplanes, and China Station

1926 , in which James Robins

painted float-equipped Fairey

Flycatchers taking off alongside an

aircraft carrier.

Another feature of the GAvA show,

but by invitation only, was the

seven specially commissioned

artworks displayed by the

charity Leonard Cheshire

Disability. The

12-plus paintings

all signify moments

in the career of

esteemed World

War Two Bomber

Command pilot and

charity campaigner

September 2018 FLYPAST 93

Canvas WingsCanvas WingsWingsWingsWings

FlyPast editor Chris Clifford reports on this

year’s Guild of Aviation Artists’ exhibition at

the Mall Galleries in London

Below left

Keynote speaker

at this year’s GAvA

exhibition was

former boss of the

Royal Air Force,

Air Chief Marshal

(ret’d) Sir Glenn

Torpy GCB CBE DSO,

who is also the

guild’s patron.

CHRIS FRENCH