QN AUTUMN 22 LR

QUARTERLY 

N EWS 

AUTUMN 2022 

THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE GUILD OF AVIATION ARTISTS 

WWW.GAVA.ORG.UK 

Diamond Jubilee Flypast 

by Guild President Michael Turner P&FGAvA 

CONTENTS INCLUDE... 

From The Chair - Andrew Latham 3 

Diamond Jubilee Flypast - Michael Turner 4-6 

Finding an old friend - David Calow 7 

RAF Cosford Commission - Phil Hadley 8-11 

2022 3D Virtual Exhibition - Steve Chard 12-13 

Night Scenes - Keith Woodcock 14-17 

David Gibbings Hon AGAvA - Obituary 18 

Region Meetings 19-28 

2023 Annual Update 29 

2023 Membership Subscriptions 29 

MAVAS & Aviation Magazines 30 

Caption Competition 30 

HQ contact information 31 

The Back Page - Drew Harrison 32 

GUILD OF AVIATION ARTISTS QUARTERLY NEWS AUTUMN 2022

DIARY 2023 

DATES &VENUES 

FROM THE CHAIR 

Andrew Latham GAvA 

QN EDITORS 

Robert Calow GAvA 

David Calow GAvA 

Welcome to the Autumn ‘22 QN 

We must apologise for the delayed arrival of 

this edition of the QN. 

Sadly our mother passed away suddenly at 

the end of September and so work on the 

QN was suspended. Hopefully though, post 

strikes permitting, you will now still receive this 

magazine before Christmas. 

Our cover painting and accompanying 

article is by Guild President Michael Turner 

and shows the Diamond Jubilee flypast over 

Windsor Castle in 2012 and is included as a 

tribute to her late Majesty. We also wish to 

pass on our congratulations to Michael for 

his recent Honorary Companion award by 

the Royal Aeronautical Society. Our President 

was recommended for the award by the 

late David Gibbings MBE Hon AGAvA whose 

obituary we include in this issue. 

The current 2022 virtual Exhibition has given 

the Guild a welcome on-line presence and 

thanks go to all of the artists who entered. We 

then look forward to our first live exhibition for 

three years during June 2023 at the Imperial 

War Museum Duxford. It promises to be a 

prestigious event with a very large footfall 

predicted over the main weekend. 

2023 AGM preparations continue with RAF 

Museum Hendon confirmed as the venue 

over the weekend of 25th/26th March. Full 

details will be circulated in due course by 

e-mail and included in the next QN. 

We include another of Guild Fellow Keith 

Woodcock’s in-depth articles about aspects 

of aviation painting, this time looking at 

subjects in night-time. We also feature two 

large hangar interior paintings by Midland 

Region Organiser Phil Hadley which were 

commissions by RAF Cosford. 

Finally, this issue’s Back Page focuses on 

Australian Drew Harrison, a contemporary artist 

who has many awards for military paintings as 

well as for landscapes and more avant-garde 

work. His bold colours and graphic approach 

make for very dynamic paintings. 

We hope that everyone has a very 

Happy Christmas. 

Robert and David 

Midland Region Meetings 

Sat 14th January - New Year Social with luncheon and sketching 

The Park Gate Inn, Cannock Wood 

Sat 11th February 

Armourgeddon, Husbands Bosworth 

Sat 15th April 

venue TBC 

Sat 13th May 

Sleap Airfield Shropshire 

South East Region Meeting 

Sat 3rd December 

RAF Museum Hendon 

East Anglian Region Meetings 

Sat 11th March 

IWM Duxford 

Sat 8th April 

Norwich Air Museum 

Sun 21st May Norfolk & Suffolk A M Exhibition and Sketching day 

GAvA Committee Provisional Zoom Meeting Dates 

(Mondays) 23rd Jan / 3rd April / 13th June / 11th Sept / 20th Nov 

Cartoon Corner 

by 

The topics in Clyde’s classic cartoons always seem to come round again... 

Black Friday deals are on... 

The World Cup is here again..... 

NASA have just launched 

Artemis..... 

The era of Drone Warfare 

in Ukraine is here... 

...and Sainsbury’s are on 

the pre-Christmas Nectar 

Points push again... 

Online Exhibition 

The online exhibition has run on the 

website for the last month. While not a 

replacement for the real exhibition, it has 

been an opportunity for over 70 artists to 

display over 240 works. 

There have been 17 sales so far and 

the exhibition has also been shown in a 

purpose-designed gallery on the artsteps 

platform. The Aviation Painting of the Year 

prize, funded by the Guild, was won by a 

Friend, James Robins; his work ‘Hunting 

Pirates’ won the unanimous vote of the 

three independent judges. Three works, 

by Graham Henderson, Graham Singleton 

and Paul Couper, were highly commended. 

Congratulations! 

Other prizes were not awarded this time 

as not all sponsors were participating. 

There are some excellent works by 

newcomers, which is very encouraging. 

The exhibition also gives us the chance to 

progress qualification towards promotions. 

Commitment to the exhibition ends in 

December, although as usual, pictures 

remain on the web and available to view and 

for sale, unless otherwise specified. 

2023 Annual 

Plans are now taking shape for a live 

exhibition at IWM Duxford next June, earlier 

than we were used to. Specific details 

will be published shortly. Setup will be on 

Thursday 22nd, opening on Friday, with 

close on Sunday evening and takedown 

and collection of works on Monday 26th 

morning. 

The weekend is the occasion of the Summer 

Airshow at Duxford, so numbers of visitors 

should be high, and we will need a good team 

to help with all aspects of mounting an art 

exhibition in a potentially busy environment. 

It’s an exciting prospect and, while works 

on show in previous online only exhibitions 

will be eligible, it’s a great opportunity to get 

those creative juices flowing and produce 

something new, original and stunning. 

We’re still seeking sponsorship to help 

cover the costs, so if you do have any 

connections, please let us know. 

AGM 2023 

The AGM in 2023 will be held at RAF Museum 

Hendon. Details are being finalised and 

when ready will be sent primarily by email, 

so please keep a look out. In the lead up to 

the exhibition our treasurer decided to leave 

the Guild for personal reasons. 

It was important that we find someone 

quickly, and for now Janet has stepped 

back into the hot seat, while we look for a 

long-term replacement. We have reinstated 

a finance sub-committee, to provide some 

distance between chairman and financial 

decisions. 

RAeSoc Award 

For some time now we have been forging 

closer links with the Royal Aeronautical 

Society. It was largely at the instigation of 

David Gibbings MBE Hon AGAvA, who has 

sadly passed away and whose obituary you 

will find on page 18. David was such a keen 

supporter and advocate of aviation and art, 

and he would call me regularly to suggest 

new ways in which we might promote our art 

in the industry. He will be greatly missed, 

although his legacy lives on. 

One of his initiatives was to put forward 

our President, Michael Turner for the 

award of Honorary Companion. Last week 

I accompanied Michael to the presentation 

at 4 Hamilton Place, RAeSoc HQ. It was 

a splendid occasion and an honour for 

the Guild and Michael to be among such 

talented people, and he received long 

applause from the assembled company of 

award winners. More in the next QN. 

I hope you have an enjoyable Christmas. 

Very Best Wishes, 


Chairman 

1 December 2022 

Thanks again from the Eds to Clyde Anderson AGAvA for all his contributions! 

2 GUILD OF AVIATION ARTISTS QUARTERLY NEWS AUTUMN 2022 

GUILD OF AVIATION ARTISTS QUARTERLY NEWS AUTUMN 2022 3


Michael Turner P & FGAvA 

Back in 2016, I was honoured to be 

commissioned by the RAF Museum to 

record the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee 

flypast over Windsor Castle, and set 

about the task eagerly. 

I was provided with a seat in the Gazelle 

weather helicopter from RAF Northolt, 

and duly joined it and the crew of 

two on the apron in the early morning 

sunshine on the appointed day. 

As the event had not yet happened, 

I had no preliminary thoughts as to 

viewpoints, composition or content, and 

the weather was imminently forecast to 

change radically for the worse. The task 

for the Wg Cdr in the front passenger 

seat was to make the final decision on 

conditions for the event to be given the 

go-ahead or be cancelled. 

By the time we crossed the nearby 

Chilterns, the visibility in increasingly 

extensive low cloud was minimal, and 

I could only see the treetops speeding 

past not far below. 

By the time we hovered over Windsor 

town, the decision to give the clear or 

cancel was marginal, and I began to 

realise that the need for my anticipated 

commission could become irrelevant. 

What a responsibility to have to make 

the decision to go ahead or cancel, 

but thankfully, having gathered reports 

from the route up from the coast and 

beyond, and assessed the local area 

which was improving, he gave the 

flypast the go-ahead. 

Sighs of relief! 

We took up position to hover over the 

outskirts of Windsor, and not long after, 

Typhoons appeared out of the murk to 

open the proceedings. We watched 

them pass by, at which point my pilot 

said there would be a considerable 

pause, and we would circle the castle 

for me to get aerial photos of the scene, 

where the Queen and Royal party were 

gathered in the main quadrangle with 

a massed parade of military before 

moving down to the horse arena below 

to watch the flypast. 

We had barely reached he Castle 

when the pilot announced that he 

would have to clear the area – a source 

of consternation. We returned to our 

position and saw the Royal party and 

parade leave the quadrangle and 

move down to the horse showground 

below the hill. 

After the expected pause, we then saw 

the lead group, led by 12 helicopters, 

appear from the south and pass us right 

to left low over the Castle. The second 

element comprised the BBMF, Lancaster, 

three Spitfires and a Hurricane. 

After the next gap, we saw 20 Tucano’s, 

formatting the number 60, then the 

transport heavies, Hercules, etc, which 

were ahead of a large formation of 

28 Hawks, displaying as E11R. Bringing 

up the distant rear were the Queen’s 

favourite Red Arrows, their presence 

aided by the Red White and Blue smoke 

they trailed. 

With no second attempt at circling the 

castle for my reference photos, we 

headed back to Northolt. cont... 





Finding an old friend at Newark 


First to disembark were the pilot and Wg 

Cdr, who were quickly on their mobile 

phones, and could be heard exclaiming 

apologies, saying sorry several times, 

and that it wouldn’t happen again, but 

that they were operating for the official 

artist’s benefit. Our enquiries clarified 

the issue, as our helicopter had created 

an unacceptable noise over the castle, 

making it difficult to issue commands to 

the parade to march off down to the 

horse arena. The pilot was told to push 

off, or words to that effect, without delay. 

My concerns at the lost opportunity 

were softened when the crew said they 

would fly me over the Castle for my 

reference gathering within the next few 

days, without any local distractions, and 

the following week I was offered a seat 

in the weather helicopter which was 

heading to London’s West End to clear 

the conditions for a ceremony at the 

Bomber Crew Memorial in Piccadilly, 

returning to Northolt via Windsor. 

The flight to London’s West End on what 

turned out to be a clear sunny morning 

was a bonus, and we paused just north 

of Heathrow on the way back to wait 

for airspace clearance, as the castle is 

on the final approach from the West. 

Given a brief and very specific time 

clearance, we darted in and circled 

Windsor as comprehensively as possible, 

which was thankfully adequate. Phew – 

now to come up with the best overall 

composition! 

Bearing in mind the length of the flypast, 

it would not be possible to get the 

entire show into a more conventional 

proportioned canvas, and I had no 

option but to condense the extent of the 

event to fit a nevertheless proportionally 

wide composition, at the same time 

varying the height of each segment so 

that there was no evident danger of 

a potential collision. The weather also 

dictated a rather gloomy effect, but 

had to reflect the actual conditions on 

the day. 

Not long after the completed painting 

was delivered to the RAF Museum, I 

had occasion to go to Buckingham 

Palace for a meeting with ACM Sir 

David Walker, who I had known when 

he was Stn Cdr at RAF Halton, and was 

then Keeper of the Queen’s Household. 

Over coffee he asked what I had been 

painting recently, and I told him of the 

Jubilee flypast commission. “Has the 

Queen seen it” he asked. “ Not to my 

knowledge” I replied. “I think she should 

see it. Unfortunately I am leaving this 

appointment in two weeks time, but will 

leave a note for my P.A. to arrange”. 

A few weeks later, during the Guild 

Annual Committee dinner at the RAF 

Club, I mentioned this to Trustee Sir Ian 

Macfadyen, who scribbled some notes 

down, and soon after I had a letter 

from Buckingham Palace saying that a 

private audience with the Queen had 

been arranged, where we could discuss 

the painting with her. Peter Dye, then 

director of the Museum, and Andrew 

Cormack, keeper of art, would deliver 

the painting for the occasion. What an 

exciting development. 

The three of us duly gathered and 

parked in the Palace courtyard, 

where we were met by an Equerry, 

who ushered us in and explained the 

procedures and protocol involved 

and led us along corridors in the Royal 

apartments, passing a corgi or two 

on the way. We paused in the lobby 

outside a reception room, where we 

were told that these audiences usually 

lasted ten to fifteen minutes and the 

Queen would make a comment hinting 

when it was time to leave, whereupon 

we would bow and turn to walk out of 

the room. 

Without further ado, he opened the 

door to reveal the Queen standing 

beside my painting, displayed on 

an easel, and we shook hands and 

bowed in turn. Her Majesty opened 

the conversation, setting us at our ease, 

and when Peter Dye had explained the 

reason for the commission, I started by 

describing the process leading up to 

the work. I mentioned that I had asked 

Sir Ian Macfadyen, then Governor of 

Windsor Castle, to view the painting in 

my studio before delivering it, in case 

he could spot any obvious mistakes, 

and only one point came up, when he 

said that his apartments should be at 

right angles to the adjacent Gate Arch. 

not at a slight angle. I was concerned, 

but produced my photographs taken 

from the helicopter, and he conceded 

gracefully that I was right, his apartments 

were at an angle to the gate, and 

went away happy. The Queen studied 

the spot, and with some surprise said 

that she too would have agreed with 

her Governor! The leading formation 

of helicopters prompted her to recall 

Princes William and Harry describing their 

adventures wheeling and manoeuvring 

around the sky whilst in the Services, and 

the importance of the BBMF following. 

Her attention went to the tail end of 

the flypast, were the Red Arrows were 

trailing red, white and blue smoke. One 

of her favourite elements in the many 

events and flypasts she witnessed, 

she went on to say that Sir Ian had 

introduced her to the Red Arrows pilots 

at an event, and that until then she 

had not consciously realised that the 

scarlet Gnats and Hawks were actually 

controlled by human beings. 

After more discussion, Her Majesty 

said “Thank you for showing me the 

painting” which we recognised was the 

audience terminating remark, and we 

were turning to leave when she added 

“I am so pleased that you managed to 

hide Datchet behind the clouds”. When 

we left the room, the Equerry expressed 

surprise, saying that we had been 

chatting to Her Majesty for half-an-hour. 

What a wonderful experience, and 

what a lovely person, who had 

been our longest reigning Monarch 

through most of my life. Her seemingly 

unexpected death after a lifetime of 

exceptional service and dedication 

was a devastating shock to me and 

many millions of people not only in this 

country but worldwide, and no matter 

whatever else might happen to me, 

that privileged audience will forever be 

my personal high point. 


Photo:alamy 

The summer Midland Region visit to 

Newark Air Museum is one of the 

highlights of the year but it wasn’t the 

excellent aviation collection that inspired 

this time; the obligatory visit to the wellstocked 

shop saw me looking at an old 

friend I hadn’t seen since 1981... 

As I viewed the vast range of models 

and books on show, my eye caught a 

few original paintings resting on the floor. 

I stopped, suddenly realising that one of 

the paintings was my first ever aviation 

commission which I had painted as a 20 

year old way back in 1981 - so I bought it! 

The details are a bit sketchy now 

surrounding the commission after all this 

time but I do remember it was from a 

friend of the family who was one of the 

crew on an English Electric Canberra 

T17.A. The aircraft was one of the newer 

type of electronic surveillance versions 

developed from the standard B2. The 

No.360 Squadron aircraft had the serial 

number WJ633 with the letter F and the 

squadron emblem - a moth and trident 

on the tail. That was about it for details. I 

think there was also a side view photo of 

the aircraft for reference. No Mr Google 

in those days... 

Reading Chris Draper’s Phantom article 

in the last QN struck a chord - he was 

inspired by Roy Huxley’s box art and I 

was with Roy Cross’ very distinctive style 

for Airfix. You have to start somewhere! 

One thing I remember considering was 

should I do it in coloured pencils? Even 

then (Robert and I were at Leeds Poly 

studying graphics at the time) I was using 

pencils as one of my favourite mediums. 

Unfortunately though, the client wanted 

a “proper painting” so out came the 

watercolours, gouache and coloured 

tinted background paper. 

The client was happy with the finished 

version which I assumed ended up on 

the Squadron wall or his wall at home. 

I can only surmise that the client has 

passed on now and the picture was 

donated to the Museum shop to sell. 

The usual trip on-line came up with 

more background: The squadron was 

initially known as the Joint Electronic 

Warfare Trials and Training Force before 

being given its official designation 

of No.360 [RN/RAF] Squadron on 23 

September 1966. The first Canberra T.17 

was delivered just before Christmas 

1966 and this type soldiered on until 

disbandment in 1994. 

The Squadron moved to RAF Cottesmore 

in April 1969 and the squadron badge 

awarded in 1973: the trident represents 

the Royal Navy involvement, whilst the 

moth (Melese laodamia) depicts the 

unique role of the Squadron: this particular 

moth avoids predatory bats by jamming 

their prey-finding “radar” system! 

No.360 Squadron moved again in 

September 1975 to RAF Wyton where 

it remained until being disbanded in 

October 1994, its work being taken over 

by Flight Refuelling Ltd. Interestingly the 

nose section of WJ633 is now on display 

at Norwich Air Museum. 

So a round trip of 41 

years and my painting 

of Canberra T.17A ‘F for 

Freddie’ WJ633 is back 

in my collection! 




2022 3D Virtual and on-line Annual Exhibition Steve Chard GAvA 

Our third on-line exhibition is on during November 2022 and 

associated submission process things are starting to get a little bit 

slicker behind the scenes in terms of the administration. 

This is probably no bad thing as on-line 

selection also seems to be the new 

norm amongst other art groups. 

For those who are interested, the entry 

procedure is that details from your entry 

forms are transferred on a spreadsheet 

and corresponding images moved 

into a folder (with the help of Excel 

and Dropbox). The images are then 

checked for acceptability (although 

of a generally acceptable standard 

this year there were still several which 

had to be rejected for being of poor 

resolution, out of focus, with frames half 

cropped or not taken squarely). 

Good quality images are very important 

as not only do poor images look bad on 

the artist but also the Guild. 

Once complete, the spreadsheet 

becomes the ‘master’ from which the 

catalogue etc is produced. It has to be 

checked for any ambiguities or errors 

and any loose ends tied up. 

One example, for instance, is that on 

several occasions the titles of submitted 

image files did not correspond with the 

titles entered on the artist’s entry form. 

Luckily I’m pretty good with my aircraft rec 

so managed to work out what was what! 

( I knew all those days plane-spotting as a 

kid would be useful one day!). 

Another job to be done was the 

checking of aircraft descriptions and 

making corrections or adjustments 

to ensure consistency. For instance 

different artists may describe an aircraft 

portrayed as a ‘Spitfire ll’ as a ‘Mark 2 

Spitfire’ or ‘Spitfire Mk2’. 

Readers may be aware that currently the 

title and descriptions on the entry forms 

need to be under 30 words (including 

characters). Many particularly struggled 

with keeping the description this short 

but this rule is in place to ensure enough 

space in the catalogues. 

In total we had received 274 entries of 

which 241 were accepted by the judges. 

Reasons for rejection were generally the 

norm; poor representation of the subject, 

lack of depth and/or tonal contrast and 

poor composition. 

Another important area noted that may 

lead to rejection is lack of ‘movement’ 

(ie blur) in propellors or rotor blades of 

aircraft in flight. 

All in all the submissions period is a 

very busy couple of weeks for those 

volunteers involved. 

Enjoyable as it is however, I think we 

breath a combined sigh of relieve 

when it’s over, with no major issues, 

and we can look forward to seeing the 

accepted works at the exhibition. 

Roll on 2023 and, as always, new 

volunteers are always very welcome! 

Steve Chard GAvA 

“The Need for Speed” by 

Chris French FGAvA was used 

as the Exhibition poster image. 



RAF Cosford Commission Following in the President’s footsteps... Phil Hadley AGAvA 

Beginnings & Planning 

The story of how these paintings came 

about is aptly described in Chris Wilson’s 

accompanying article. 

When No 1 School of Technical Training 

was based at Halton, the AFTS hangar 

was the main location for training the 

RAF’s engineering students. However, 

at Cosford, two hangars are used as 

the principal training locations, these 

being Hangar 143 and Hangar 146. 

Engineering students spend most of 

their time in either one hangar or the 

other, based on their chosen specialist 

trades, as different trades are taught in 

each hangar. 

Whilst the original discussions were very 

much centred around me producing 

one painting, when it became apparent 

that the School would hopefully make 

prints of the paintings available to 

graduating students, it seemed only 

logical that it would be necessary to 

produce a painting of each hangar. 

The likelihood that the two paintings 

might eventually hang together, led to 

the feeling that they should share similar 

viewpoints, be the same size, and also 

share the same style. 

Both paintings needed to be of a 

reasonable size as the walls at Cosford 

are rather large! 

I therefore decided that each painting 

should be A1 in size….which is quite 

big for me as I am usually more happy 

working on much smaller sizes. 

The paintings would be in oils, and, as 

I tend to paint quite thinly, I decided I 

would not be happy with working a 

large canvas, as I cannot stand the 

‘bounce’ that the canvas gives at the 

bigger sizes. 

Accordingly I decided on using 9mm 

birch faced plywood as the support for 

the paintings. With a timber panel, there 

would be no ‘bounce’ and the firm 

surface would allow me to incorporate 

very fine details. The boards were laser 

cut to size and after preparation of 2 

coats primer and undercoat, plus 3 

coats of pale grey gesso the supports 

were ready. 

Reference gathering & Compositions 

Hangar 143 

I felt that to be a suitable follow on to 

President Michael Turner’s painting of 

Halton, the viewpoint for Hangar 143 

needed to be from an elevated position 

which looked down, and along, the 

considerable length of the hangar. This 

was easy to achieve in H143 which 

had at one end an internal, flat roofed, 

single-storey office space with access 

onto its roof. 

(Hangar 146, however, was to be a 

different story, and so a ‘cherry picker’ 

would be required for me to capture 

the view of that hangar from the same 

relative position…..but more of that later) 

Back to the composition for H143. 

This hangar contains three rows of 

Jaguars, the two right hand ones being 

extremely close together, nose on 

to one another. The third row is to the 

left and is also the other side of a row 

of structural columns. At the far end, 

behind the ceiling-hung flags, are 2 

Tornados, also facing one another. 

In the close foreground to the viewpoint, 

Jaguars have been removed, or turned, 

to allow a seating area for graduation 

ceremonies. 

In reality, the whole scene is extremely 

tight and very, very, busy (apart from the 

immediate foreground). I felt I needed 

to give space between the principal 

rows of Jaguars in order to do justice 

to the key personnel who needed to 

be featured. I also needed to fill in the 

missing aircraft from the foreground 

and generally use a degree of artistic 

licence to create a more pleasing 

scene, whilst at the same time retain the 

essential feel of the interior of H143. 

So, in the end, I widened out the 

whole hangar by one structural ‘bay’, 

giving a good walkway between the 

Jaguars’ pitot probes. I left out the 

entire far left row of Jags, and moved 

the background Tornados apart which 

allowed them visually to symmetrically 

frame the two hanging flags. 

Another concern was that the whole 

building was just full of plain grey aircraft. 

The alterations therefore allowed certain 

features to ‘lift’ the painting, such as the 

flags, personnel, platform stairs, window 

lights and reflections. In the end, the 

final composition featured only six of 

Cosford’s Jaguars, with the remainder 

being five varying views of my own 1/48 

scale model!! 

Having received approval of the pencil 

layout for H143 from Chris, it was then 

transferred onto board number 1 and 

work on the easel commenced. 

Hangar 146 

Hangar 146 has its main office 

accommodation located at the far 

end of the hangar from the viewpoint 

I wanted to use. Accordingly the floor 

space accommodating the aircraft 

is relatively much shorter than in H143. 

Thus I was faced with a different set of 

problems. 

With this shorter hangar, in order to 

faithfully portray the reality, the painting 

would have shown a vast expanse of 

ceiling beams and a lot of foreground 

floor. Whilst trying to keep the relative eye 

level lines similar in both compositions, I 

thus reduced the quantity of ceiling and 

floor by making the end wall some 25% 

taller than it should have been. The left 

hand side wall separating the Hawks 

from the Jaguars was also increased 

in height to maintain the perspective. 

This necessitated raising the tails of the 

Jaguars so that they would be visible 

over the top of the wall. 

The prominent view of Hangar 146 is not 

so densely populated with aircraft as 

in H143, and there is, in reality, a wide 

walkway running front to back with a 

large area of open floor space in the 

immediate foreground. This provided 

an ideal opportunity to comfortably 

incorporate the key personnel which at 

the same time filled in a lot of ‘empty’ 

space. 

In this hangar, colour was plentiful - 

particularly with the Red Arrows and 

gloss black Hawks. A different floorpaint 

to H143 provided a nice colour contrast 

to that in the first painting. 

But how to get the references for the views? 

cont.. 



RAF Cosford Commission cont... Phil Hadley AGAvA Sqn Ldr Chris Wilson RAF Cosford 

Whilst I was working on H143 on the 

easel, Chris was busy trying to arrange 

a cherry picker for me. The days turned 

into weeks and still no cherry picker 

(apparently Cosford did not have one 

on site at all) so I was beginning to get 

concerns about meeting the deadline. 

In the end at the October 2021 Midland 

Region sketching day in Hangar 4, I 

spotted something we might use. Chris 

agreed and made enquiries only to 

find out that what we had spotted was 

called a ‘MEWP’ and was not, in fact, a 

‘cherry picker’ at all. So lesson learned, 

‘always check the details’. 

In short order, Chris had the MEWP 

moved to H146 and with a qualified 

driver, I was able to get up to the correct 

height to gather my references. 

It did not take long after that to finally 

get the pencil layout for H146 finished in 

order to get stage approval from Chris. 

With H143 nearing completion (albeit 

minus the personnel), I was thus able to 

commence with H146 on the easel. 

Populating the paintings 

One of the main requirements of the 

brief was that both paintings needed 

to include some key members of the 

Cosford team. In particular, the Station 

Commander - Gp Capt Gareth Bryant, 

CO of No 1 SoTT - Wg Cdr Justin Blackie, 

the Station Warrant Officer - WO Taff 

Edwards, and of course, Colin Ashcroft, 

the instructor who had appeared in 

Michael’s painting of Halton, …..and 

whose initial query had started this 

particular ball rolling. 

In addition, I decided that I should 

include Sqn Ldr Chris Wilson, as he had 

commissioned the paintings on behalf 

of the Station, and also Sqn Ldr Dave 

Kerrison, who is Chief of Staff at the 

School. 

Knowing that getting these six busy 

people together at the same time and 

in the same place in order for me to 

gather references would be a tall order, 

I decided to approach it very much as a 

well-organized wedding photographer 

would choreograph their photo shoot. 

In the studio, I plotted on large prints 

of photos of H143 the locations where 

I wanted each individual to appear 

relative to both paintings. I then 

arranged with Chris a date and time 

for them all to meet up in Hangar 143. 

About an hour before they arrived, from 

my studio plots, I was able to mark up 

the foreground floor of H143 with the 

locations in which I wanted them to 

stand. Then, from up on the roof of the 

office space, I was able to photograph 

them all and choreograph their moving 

to new positions, thus completing this 

part of the reference gathering in some 

20-30 minutes…. Job done ! 

Additional personnel were taken from 

my earlier references of both H143 and 

H146. Thus the final part of the jigsaws 

were complete and I was able to 

populate the paintings and finish both 

pieces. 

Unveiling, handover and conclusions 

A date was set in the diary for the 

unveiling and handover to Gp Capt 

Bryant; lunchtime on 27th July in the 

Officers’ Mess for tea and biccies. 

Accompanied by my wife Lisa, and 

supported by our erstwhile editors 

Robert and David Calow, we set up the 

paintings on easels in the lounge area 

of the Officers’ Mess. At the appointed 

hour, Gp Capt Bryant, accompanied by 

other key personnel arrived and after a 

few introductory words, the paintings 

were unveiled. There followed a very 

convivial hour or so discussing not only 

the paintings, but the importance of the 

relationship between the Guild and RAF 

Cosford, and also that of the Guild with 

the RAF as a whole. 

After much picture taking, the four of us 

left behind my two latest creations with 

their new owners and adjourned to the 

nearby David Austin Roses Café for a 

wind down debrief accompanied by 

afternoon tea. 

Having worked closely with RAF 

Cosford for some five years now, and 

established very close links between 

the base and the Midland Region of 

the Guild, I was delighted when asked 

if I would produce these paintings for 

the School, some thirty years after the 

first one, in order to capture the training 

environment at Cosford. 

Throughout the process, I worked very 

closely with Chris Wilson who approved 

the work at all key stages and arranged 

access for me whenever I needed it to 

not only both of the hangars, but also 

the key personnel who would feature in 

the paintings. 

To be asked to produce not one, but 

two paintings, for such an important 

RAF Station is an incredible honour and 

privilege for me. I’m not only very proud 

of the resulting paintings, but also proud 

of the continuing association I have with 

RAF Cosford and its people. 

Phil Hadley AGAvA 

Midland Region Organiser 

Photos: David Calow 

The relationship between RAF Cosford 

and the GAvA continues to go from 

strength to strength. The latest evidence 

for this are the two fabulous works of 

art commissioned by the station and 

painted by Phil Hadley. 

The idea for the paintings came about 

during a sketch day on the station in 

2021. While minding his own business 

and trying to get to grips with a Red 

Arrow Hawk in No.1 School of Technical 

Training, Phil was approached by Colin 

Ashcroft, an engineering instructor, with 

a framed Michael Turner print. The print 

was taken from an original painting 

of a No.1 School of Technical Training 

hangar when the School was still at RAF 

Halton in the nineties. A much younger 

Colin featured in the painting and he 

was keen to know more about it. 

Although Phil wasn’t familiar with 

the painting, which still hangs in the 

Officers’ Mess at RAF Halton, he was 

able to talk to Colin about Michael as 

an artist. Michael’s painting is certainly 

quite familiar to many aircraft engineers 

across the RAF but it is 30 years old 

now. This conversation led to a further 

discussion about what an updated 

painting of the current No.1 School of 

Technical Training might look like. I asked 

Phil whether he might be interested 

in doing a new painting of one of the 

hangars and, thankfully, he was. Almost 

immediately, one painting became two 

as it was felt that we couldn’t do one 

of the School’s main hangars without 

doing the other. Luckily for us Phil was 

up to the task and he set himself a 

challenge of completing two paintings 

in only a few months. 

While the two new paintings have the 

Phil Hadley stamp all over them, he very 

cleverly ensured that the perspective 

in his work harked back to that of 

Michael’s. In another link to the past, 

Phil also painted in a couple of figures 

working on an aircraft whose pose 

was exactly that of two figures which 

appear in Michael’s painting. The final 

link between the new and old paintings 

was Colin Ashcroft, the person whose 

conversation started this latest artistic 

journey. 

As he appears in Michael’s painting, he 

now also appears in Phil’s too. 

Just as Michael’s work is synonymous 

with No.1 School of Technical Training at 

RAF Halton, Phil’s is now synonymous with 

No.1 School of Technical Training at RAF 

Cosford. His work will hang at Cosford 

for years to come and be admired by 

generations of aircraft technicians as 

they begin their RAF journey at Cosford. 

Chris Wilson 

Sqn Ldr|MCCO|RAF Cosford 

Photo: www.shropshirestar.com 



Night Scenes Painting atmosphere and character Keith Woodcock FGAvA ASAA 

This particular article looks at an aspect 

of aviation art which can give a painting 

atmosphere and character. However 

it also emphasises the significance of 

the one key element which governs 

every painting we produce. LIGHT. Not 

only is the source vitally important for 

this inherently demanding portrayal of 

aircraft but equally crucial is its choice 

of position and how it illuminates the 

subject. To demonstrate this I shall 

be analysing some night scenes with 

examples and suggesting how to 

accomplish these. 

Obviously, any painting which depicts 

an after-dark situation will need to 

be illuminated by some method. The 

solution to this enigma can be any of 

the following :- 

1. Natural moonlight. 

2. A flare, as used on bombing missions 

or one used to indicate distress at sea. 

3. Floodlights, car headlamps, aircraft 

landing lights and other focused beams. 

4. Artificial lighting such as street lamps 

and lanterns which provide an overall 

illumination. 

5. Fire, either natural or as a result of 

wartime attack, aircraft malfunction or 

just the efflux from a modern jet engine. 

6. The instantaneous flash from flak or 

aircraft guns. 

These all provide the artist with the 

opportunity to illuminate a scene but it 

is important to remember that all these 

sources differ in terms of the type of light 

being transmitted, some being warm 

whilst others provide a cool light. It is also 

essential to understand how the aircraft 

surfaces react to such limited lighting. 

Glossy and natural metal surfaces will 

reflect more light than matt camouflage 

and an aircraft’s tonal value and colour 

will also have a bearing on the amount 

of light to be shown. Warm or cool light 

will also modify the colour’s hue. 

The first illustration (1) shows a typical 

cool moonlit scenario found on many 

wartime bombing missions which allows 

the light grey/blue finish of the German 

Ju88 night fighter to show quite a lot of 

detail, markings, etc. Observe that the 

moon’s single intense location creates 

notably sharp shadows in a similar way 

to sunlight, as seen under the wing and 

tailplane of both the attacking night 

fighter and the stricken Halifax with its 

abandoning crew. The warmer light 

from the bomber’s fire damage can 

also be seen reflected on the Junkers’ 

canopy and to a lesser extent on the 

fuselage and fin. So there are 2 sources 

of illumination on this example. 

For the next example (2) we have 

another Halifax, accompanied by 

Lancaster and Stirling aircraft on one of 

the big 1000 bomber raids. 

Surprisingly this scenario proved to need 

extensive research as there were very 

few missions which used all 3 types of 

aircraft and to get the correct squadron 

codes for each aircraft needed a great 

deal of searching through squadron 

records. 

This time we have a large conflagration 

on the ground which is lighting the 

undersides of the bombers, almost 

creating silhouettes, but note that the 

reflected light on the cockpit and front 

turret glazing shows the cooler tones of 

natural moonlight. 

The painting was produced for a 

book jacket and therefore needed to 

have lots of impact but, having never 

physically been in such a situation, I 

was more than a little concerned that it 

was rather too exaggerated. However, 

I spoke to a Guild member who had 

been a WW2 bomber pilot and he 

assured me that it was exactly how he 

remembered it. 

A similar scene (3) is shown with a pair 

of Heinkel 111s but with no source of 

illumination being shown at all, merely 

using the light from the unseen fires 

and moonlight to convey the form and 

shape of the aircraft. It also explains 

their purpose and provides some 

atmosphere to what would otherwise 

be a mediocre painting. 

Note the temperature contrast of 

illumination, the upper areas being cool 

while the undersides have the warm 

lighting from the blazing city below. 

Still on the subject of WW2 night 

bombing raids, (4) shows the often 

denigrated Avro Manchester actually 

carrying out an unusual diving attack on 

the Gneisenau and Scharnhorst in their 

docks at Brest, all the reasons for this 

strange manoeuvre being accurately 

provided by the author/historian. The 

burning building provides the light to 

detail the ship and other structures 

whilst also illuminating the aircraft’s 

undersides. The Manchester’s upper 

surfaces are bathed in the cool glow 

of the searchlight, which also provides 

a distinctive contrast and adds to the 

drama of the event. 

Note that the early central fin has been 

stripped of its fabric during its high speed 

dive and the elevators are already 

straining to achieve level flight. 

Detail of the bright moonlit Halifax, 

the strong shadows and warm light of 

the fire. 

2 - Handley Page Halifax, Avro Lancaster 

and Short Stirling 

1 - Junkers Ju88 night fighter and Handley Page Halifax 3 - Heinkel He111 

4 - Avro Manchester 



Night Scenes continued... Keith Woodcock FGAvA ASAA 

Moving on to a more peaceful 

environment, although still including 

an RAF bomber as the subject, this 

scene (5) shows what can be achieved 

using ground level floodlights where 

the beam can be used to highlight a 

relatively small area without affecting 

the background. I have to admit that 

the dawn or dusk sky also helps with 

the composition though. The Heyford 

flying overhead also gives the chance 

to show how the port and starboard 

red and green navigation lights can be 

used to good effect. 

Schneider Trophy scenes are always 

popular (6) and I chose to paint a very 

early one showing Great Britain’s entry 

of a Sopwith floatplane at Monaco. 

With the soft glow from a pre-dawn 

sky behind the viewer giving only 

slight illumination to the aircraft it 

was necessary for the service crew in 

their small boat to use a lantern. This 

then becomes the focus of attention, 

exaggerated by the high contrasts 

near to the light source. Notice that the 

lantern has a slight glow surrounding it. 

In this next illustration (7), commissioned 

by a magazine to portray the tragedy 

of the Hindenburg’s destruction, the 

burning hydrogen is obviously the light 

source and dominates everything. Note 

the colours in the flames and how they 

change. Yellow is a very difficult hue 

to handle successfully in any scene, 

night or day, as any darkened areas 

will tend towards a green tone so great 

care was taken to avoid this effect by 

counteracting with warm colours which 

coincidentally also suggest heat. 

I’m afraid I have had to resort to 

automobiles to show an example of 

overall broad artificial lighting. This 

scene (8) from the 1930s shows an 

imaginary but very foggy, damp street 

very typical of my childhood memories 

in an industrial city. Such conditions 

mean that any light must be diffused 

to truly suggest fog. This is not an easy 

task but perseverance will pay off. The 

light sources, car headlamps, house 

windows and street lamps all display 

this gradual diffusion and the wet, 

uneven, cobbled road surface gives an 

opportunity to use interesting reflections 

which add to the atmosphere. 

Although not a night scene, I felt that 

the final example (9) shown in this 

article is sufficiently important to include 

this type of artificial illumination which 

is often seen in many paintings in Guild 

annual exhibitions, namely reheat or 

afterburner. The aircraft is deliberately 

cropped to enhance the impact and 

the various angles give a dynamic 

effect to the composition. As related 

in example 7 great care must be taken 

when painting the actual colour of the 

heat to avoid any darkening or fading 

from going into the green spectrum. 

Study as many photographs as possible 

to observe the true colours of this 

exciting and atmospheric effect. 

Night scenes can take a painting of a 

mundane subject to a different level 

and allow the artist a great deal more 

flexibility to move light sources around 

and attenuate their intensity. It can instil 

a greater understanding of light and 

shade and initiate concepts and ideas 

which would normally be dismissed. 

Be aware though that any subsequent 

painting will require a fair number of 

thumbnail tonal sketches before a final 

choice is made as the positioning of 

the light source will dictate the whole 

composition. Just remember that light 

and shadow are the vital elements 

which give form and structure to an 

object. 

I hope this article will stimulate some of 

those little grey cells and bring about 

some examples of night paintings 

from members. Give it a try. It’s quite 

challenging but ultimately very satisfying. 

Keith Woodcock FGAvA ASAA 

7 - The Hindenburg 

9 - Eurofighter Typhoon 

5 - Handley Page Heyford 

8 - Foggy Street Scene 

6 - Sopwith Tabloid 



David Gibbings MBE, C Eng, FRAeS, Hon AGAvA 

Obituary 

NORTHERN REGION MEETING 

We were very sad to hear of the 

passing of David Gibbings MBE Hon 

AGAvA, a Founder Associate Member 

and a major contributor to the Guild 

over many years. 

David Gibbings entered the Royal Air 

Force, in 1949, as an apprentice and 

subsequently trained as a navigator. He 

joined Fairey Aviation, in 1955, to work on 

guided weapons. 

In 1959 he transferred to the Fairey Aircraft 

Division, in Hayes, to work on Rotodyne tip 

jets and to fly in the Rotodyne as Flight 

Engineer. 

After Westland acquired Fairey in 1960 

and on conclusion of the Rotodyne 

programme in 1962, he worked on the 

new Wasp and Scout helicopters before 

moving to Yeovil in 1964. 

After three years in the Westland Flight 

Test Department at Yeovil, David was 

appointed Project Flight Test Engineer for 

the new Lynx programme in 1967, and 

flew in the prototype on its first flight. 

After periods as Helicopter Icing Trials 

Manager from 1977 and Deputy Chief 

Flight Test engineer from 1980, he was 

appointed Chief Flight Test Engineer in 

1989. David remained in that post until 

retirement in 1993. After that he continued 

to work in the UK and overseas as an 

engineering author, consultant, lecturer 

and aviation artist. He presented ‘The 

Cierva Lecture’ to the Royal Aeronautical 

Society in 2003. 

In November 2010 

David Gibbings 

received one of the 

Hampshire Libraries 

Collection Awards, 

for the best books 

in Aviation subjects 

published in 2009, 

for his “Fairey 

Rotodyne”. 

David received the MBE in the New Year 

Honours List 2014. 

In later life David made no secret of the 

fact that he had Parkinson’s disease and 

offered his own full life as evidence that 

the human spirit can prevail over most 

difficulties. 

David’s funeral service took place on 

Tuesday 15th November at The Church of 

St. Peter & St. Paul, Odcombe. Kai Choi 

AGAvA played the violin at the gathering 

after the service in Odcombe Village Hall. 

A multiple helicopter flypast in honour of 

David took place at 3pm. 

David and the Guild 

David entered aviation art as a member 

of the Kronfeld Club in 1969 and was a 

Founder Associate Member of the Guild, 

(Founder Associate FA 34!). 

The early 1970s were the boom years for 

aircraft manufacture and David was a 

very busy Flight Test Engineer, so much so 

that he found it impossible to sustain his 

membership of the Guild. He resigned to 

concentrate on his very exacting day job. 

Although not working within the Guild, 

David continued to paint (even inspite of 

Parkinson’s in later life) and sold much of 

his highly considered output worldwide. 

In 2016 the Guild honoured David 

by appointing him an Hon AGAvA, 

recognising his services in support and 

encouragement of the Guild and to 

Aviation Art. 

The Westland Trophy 

The idea was the brainchild of David, 

who having spent a lifetime working 

for Westland Helicopters, was able to 

persuade the company to present a silver 

salver to the Guild, awarded for the best 

painting depicting rotary-winged flight. 

The trophy has been in place since the 

year 2000, and was offered to provide 

encouragement for artists to undertake 

rotary-winged aircraft. (David Judged for 

the award himself.) The introduction of 

the trophy had the desired effect and the 

number of helicopter paintings increased. 

(The award is now renamed The Leonardo 

Rotary-Winged Flight Trophy). 

David was the inspiration and creative 

link behind the Westland Centenary Book 

“The Art of Flight” which was published 

in 2015. Many Guild artists contributed 

to the visual history of the Westland story 

with their superb paintings and drawings 

which were featured in the book. 

David was also a prime mover in forging 

the closer links between the Guild and 

the Royal Aeronautical Society and 

encouraging them to form an arts group. 

He was also instrumental in proposing 

Guild President Michael Turner for Honorary 

Companion of the RAeSoc. Michael 

has now been accepted, attending the 

recent presentation ceremony. 

Despite his illness, David continued to 

paint and indeed exhibited in the online 

2021 Annual, selling one painting as 

well as being Highly Commended for the 

Leonardo Rotary-Winged Flight Trophy. 

David’s encouragement, creative ideas 

and committment to the Guild will be 

greatly missed. 


National Museum of Flight 

East Fortune 

Saturday October 1st 

A Grand day out, or perhaps “oot” 

would be more appropriate. The 

Northern Region, albeit the Scottish 

League Division One played a home 

game with a visit to the National 

Museum of Flight, East Fortune Airfield, 

East Lothian. 

The meeting had been cancelled due 

to lack of numbers, but a last-minute 

decision to go ahead anyway was 

made. 

With only three amigos attending; Ted 

Runciman, Evan and myself, we split up. 

Ted and I had discussed what we might 

try to accomplish during our visit on the 

phone, indeed this gave our work a 

little more impetus as the Aviator’s Café 

beverages were a little bit of a magnet. 

It always has been, much like any 

scribbling day in the past. The bacon 

rolls are just as good as they have ever 

been. Possibly better. 

Evan had planned his work more 

scrupulously, to the point of having all 

the right materials on hand. Ted and I 

ventured to the military hangar. The 

facilities at East Fortune have improved 

over the last half dozen years. The 

hangar now is a polished solid lino floor 

and is well lit too. The placement of a 

rolling cinema film at one end does 

provide an equivalent of the old eight 

track continuous spool of music of the 

70/80’s. (2015 if you include Shetland) 

Whilst this is a soothing commentary it 

does come with a slight warning. The 

hangar slides into darkness as the film 

starts, but the lights soon slowly increase 

in intensity. It must have caused some 

problems in the past as the museum 

guides now warn folk about it. 

Ted and I had a warm-up on one 

aircraft to get the pencils moving, 

indeed picking similar subjects. The brief 

at the beginning was do something but 

do not spend time doing it. In the end 

we did two small items each. 

Then having talked about potential 

of some materials and methodology 

we set about doing a couple of things 

with a very short time scale. This was 

an interesting exercise and brought 

differing results. We then discussed 

our work again. At this point we were 

joined by a passing visitor who was very 

interested in the work and what we 

achieved, two old blokes talking about 

art rather than aeroplanes must have 

been the magnet. I should add the lady 

was of a similar age too. 

We had a result; Ted and I drew some 

conclusions and our new friend went 

away with a new enthusiasm for 

drawing as well as an open attitude to 

some new materials. 

For Ted it was to be the charcoal. I 

demonstrated how easy it was with 

charcoal to change something as well 

as how suitable it was for marking out 

a canvas. 

While we are on that point, white chalk 

works well on blue skies on a canvas, 

especially if you are in cloud forming 

mode. 

Blue Tac was my other medium. Not 

only is it a good putty eraser substitute 

but it can be very handy to roll over 

a desktop to pick up wax pencil, 

charcoal, graphite, pastel bits or dust. 

It can also be manipulated into thin lines 

for delicate erasing or can be rolled 

and pressed. Once dirty it is revitalised 

in the same way you make it re-sticky. 

Regular blue is good, pink and white 

are harder and more long lasting but 

Yellow is the number one being very 

hard and it makes strong thin shapes! 

After meeting back up with Evan 

we had a crit over lunch and some 

photography of the work done. Evan 

brought along an acrylic he was 

working on. A very accomplished 

Cessna F-406 of Highland Airways fame. 

He also had a demo on how to draw 

on clear acetate sheet in a spirit pen to 

lay out the work. The canvas board is 

wrapped in the sheet and Evan lays out 

the work on it. It can be rolled back and 

over the painting to use as a guide and 

is less messy than charcoal. 

Ted brought along 

his 2022 submissions 

and it was good to 

see them in real life. 

Pleased to say, that 

Ted’s excellent works 

were accepted for 

the show. 

With our lunch and 

crit over, we went 

our separate ways 

around the museum 

to explore and review the latest space 

exhibit, meet old friends and then set 

back off to the four corners of Scotland. 

That morning I had experienced the 

sunrise in the Spey Valley and on the 

way home saw the sunset over the 

Cairngorms. A long day but a reminder 

of the value of exchanges of ideas 

rather than a scribble race and a crit. 

Every day is a learning day. 

A grand day “oot.” Even a bit of 

Wensleydale for supper. Now’t better. 

Paul Warrener AGAvA 

Northern Region Organiser 

18 GUILD OF AVIATION ARTISTS QUARTERLY NEWS AUTUMN 2022 GUILD OF AVIATION ARTISTS QUARTERLY NEWS AUTUMN 2022 19

MIDLAND REGION MEETING 

Newark Air Museum 

Saturday August 20th 

It is always a pleasure to return to 

Newark Air Museum. The ‘days gone 

by’ atmosphere of the Dambusters’ 

hut, always our base for the day, 

and the usual hearty welcome from 

Ron Freeman, Brian Ward, and wife 

Moira-plus of course the traditional 

refreshments and cakes! Then there 

is the shop with such a wonderful 

selection of books and kits. 

The full range of media was in use 

from graphite and coloured pencils to 

watercolour and oils and a wide range 

of aircraft too. 

We must again thank Brian, Moira 

and Ron for hosting us at Newark and 

making us so welcome. We look forward 

to returning there in the not too distant 

future. 


It was also a decent day with blue sky 

and clouds but also with a lively breeze, 

so boded well for some good sketching. 

Around a dozen artists were in 

attendance and it was good to also see 

northerners Neil Foggo and Graham 

Henderson joining us for the day. 

David Calow 

Neil Adcock 

Pete Maxwell 

With the notices from Phil Hadley done, 

we ventured out with certainly one of 

the largest choices for subjects at any 

aviation museum and options to stay 

inside or out given the two well-stocked 

hangars. 

Although unable to be part of the 

sketching, an aircraft of interest to 

many of us was the Reid and Sigrist 

Desford which had only flown in the day 

before. Known as the ‘Desford Bomber’ 

it had been owned by Leicestershire 

County Council since 2005 and restored 

by Windmill Aviation in 2018 and kept at 

Spanhoe airfield in Northamptonshire. 

The twin engine light aircraft was 

built as a prototype trainer at Desford 

airfield in 1945. The village in southwest 

Leicestershire is where your Eds hail from 

historically and the airfield is now home 

to Caterpillar among other companies. 

It was good of the museum authorities 

to let us see this historic aircraft. 

Richard Thorne 

Another interesting story from the day 

was the rediscovery of the first ever 

aviation commission painting by one of 

your Eds which was for sale in the shop 

(See separate article in this issue). You 

couldn’t make it up! 

Late afternoon saw the traditional crit 

commence with Messers D Calow and 

Foggo in charge and it was obvious 

that everyone had been enjoying 

themselves and had produced some 

very good work. 

Viewing the Reid and Sigrist ‘Desford Bomber’ was the real highlight of the afternoon. 

Robert Calow 

There was also the presentation by 

Tony Nicholls to our Midland Region 

co-ordinator Phil Hadley, of the ‘Light 

Aircraft Trophy’ which could not be 

presented at the March AGM. Well 

done Phil! 

Phil Hadley 

Graham Henderson 




Victoria West 

East Midlands 

Aeropark 

Saturday September 24th 

14 Midland Region members plus 

guests attended the East Midlands 

Aeropark museum on the 24th 

September for what was an enjoyable 

and educational paint and sketch day. 

Following a cuppa and orientation 

briefing in the cafe, we were free to 

get on with our chosen subjects but 

not before Fred Fisk recounted that 

he had been present at Wellesbourne 

Mountford airfield earlier in the 

week and witnessed Vulcan XM655 

overshooting the runway during its 

high speed run and ending up in the 

boundary hedge. Thankfully, there 

were no casualties! 

There are a variety of aircraft and 

helicopters on display at EMAP along 

with the numerous bits of stored 

equipment, engines and displays of 

model aircraft of every description 

housed in glass cabinets. 

Peter Lane 

Fred Fisk 

Patrick Fleming 

David Calow 

Some of Aeropark’s aircraft are quite 

rare and include the nose of a BEA 

Vanguard airliner, a sizeable portion of 

a VC10 fuselage in which the Region 

once held a critique some years ago 

and a Comet nose. The museum even 

has a complete Nimrod that is now 

open for public tour. 

In addition to displays, the cloud 

formations hanging over us throughout 

the day, with their contrasting colour 

variations, were quite a spectacular 

sight as were the commercial airliners 

periodically taking off from the main 

runway at East Midlands Airport, 

adjacent to the Aeropark’s perimeter 

fence. One of these included a huge 

Boeing 747 cargo which is becoming a 

rare sight these days.. 

Time really does tend to fly however 

and at 15.20hrs the Critique began. As 

always, professional guidance on our 

submissions was provided by David and 

Robert Calow. This included advice 

on paper quality and grain especially 

for water based paintings and more 

general tips on seeing and improving 

our aviation and artwork overall. 

The most popular aircraft to paint was 

the Varsity and the Proctor but the 

Buccaneer and Hunter were not left out. 

A deserving First prize went to Peter 

Lane for his water colour painting of 

the Buccaneer whilst Patrick Fleming 

and Grahame Witts also undertook this 

aircraft using pencils. 

The runner up was our Regional 

Organiser, Phil’s, pencil rendering of the 

Canberra nose. Phil also produced a 

monochrome pastel rendering of the 

Jet Provost on dark blue paper. 

Grahame’s rendering of the Buccaneer 

was highly commended by the Critters 

and as Phil had already got duplicates 

of the items in the prize box, he donated 

his prize to Grahame. 

Trevor Colegate’s oil painting of the 

Varsity also stood out and it was possible 

to compare a water colour version of 

the same aircraft, when sat side by side 

on the easel to discuss line work and 

perspectives. 

New techniques were introduced 

by Victoria West using Claybord as a 

support. This had the effect of making 

her work seem velvety smooth as was a 

Chris Harrison 

Trevor Colegate 

completed painting of a post box set 

into a wall alongside an ‘olde world’ 

Nestles chocolate machine. 

Dave Burchett undertook the Vulcan 

bomber in acrylics but set against a vivid 

magenta/pink sky. He also submitted 

completed works for comment and 

advice on a nose view of the Piston 

Provost but with a unique disrupted 

patterned sky and clouds formation. 

I’m sure a most satisfying day was had 

by all. So much so - that Grahame Witts, 

the guest of our Regional Organiser, 

Phil, has decided to join the Guild. 

Steve Hennah Friend 

Grahame Witts 

Dave Burchett 

Phil Hadley 

Phil Hadley 

Robert Calow 

Steve Hennah 

22 GUILD OF AVIATION ARTISTS QUARTERLY NEWS AUTUMN 2022 GUILD OF AVIATION ARTISTS QUARTERLY NEWS AUTUMN 2022 23


RAF Cosford 

Main Base 

Saturday October 26th 

For our third visit onto the main base 

at Cosford this year, we again visited 

Hangar 2 which is located on the 

airfield side of the base, adjacent to 

the RAF Museum. 

This hangar is home to the Grob Tutors 

of the University of Birmingham Air 

Squadron (UBAS) which they share 

with the Jaguars and Tornados of No. 1 

School of Technical Training. Whilst the 

Jags and Tonkas are RAF property, the 

Grobs are maintained under contract 

with Babcock Engineering. 

Being half term week, we very much 

had the hangar to ourselves, as the 

students of the Technical School were 

mostly enjoying their leave week. 

For a weekday visit, we had a goodly 

turnout of 14 booked in. Our throng 

included our newest Friend member 

and 2 guests along with many of the 

usual crowd from the Midland Region. 

Tony Nicholls and Nigel Morris were our 

Critters for the afternoon and again 

our appreciation and thanks go to Sqn 

Ldr Chris Wilson and his colleagues at 

Cosford for facilitating and permitting 

our day on the base. 

Grahame Witts 

Grahame produced a pencil drawing 

of one of the base’s SEPECAT Jaguars. 

Grahame chose a front view and 

produced a dramatic piece in a drawing 

with a good depth of perspective. 

Stephen Clayton 

Stephen worked on two pieces showing 

a rear ¾ view of the Jaguar, first using 

a pencil drawing to accurately capture 

the aircraft and then progressing to 

develop the artwork further into a 

pastel rendition. 

Phil Hadley 

Phil chose two Jaguars in their gloss 

black and camouflage grey schemes 

and used an exaggerated ‘lightness 

and darkness concept’ to produce a 

striking effect. Phil used oil pastels - only 

second time he has used this medium - 

and the result is a slightly ‘looser’ style. 

Andrea Goodburn 

Andrea concentrated on the partiallydisassembled 

Tornados in Cosford’s 

training hangar, producing a number 

of drawings of the aircraft’s enormous 

tailplane and Electronic Counter 

Measures (ECM) modules that had 

been exposed for training purposes. 

Andrea produced a number of 

accurate pencil studies of the aircraft’s 

various components and systems, 

demonstrating a very economical style. 


Patrick demonstrated typical levels 

of draughtmanship in producing an 

artwork of the Red Arrows Hawk. Patrick 

used Caran d’Ache coloured pencils 

on Daler Rowney Canford red coloured 

paper to produce a dramatic image. 

The ‘forced perspective’ and minimalist 

treatment of the subject’s background 

added to the image’s drama, with 

Gouache used to pick up the pin-points 

of highlights in the Hawk’s canopy. 

Bob Spendlove 

Bob concentrated on one of the 

two-seat Jaguars producing a wellobserved 

artwork of the cockpit. The 

high gloss finish of the Jaguar provided 

an ideal opportunity to show the 

colours and details of the surrounding 

hangar space, and Bob demonstrated 

a nice use of yellow, complementing 

the black of the aircraft. 

Paul Millet 

Paul chose one of the two-seater 

Jaguars for his work, creating a rear 

3/4 view in watercolours, and including 

a nice representation of the hangar’s 

detail to complement the aircraft. 

Nigel Morris 

Nigel selected a grey Jaguar using 

Alkyd oil paints to create an image 

with a beautiful ‘looseness’. The simple 

background created an appropriate 

atmosphere with a nice play on light, 

and a sensitive use of red detailing 

maintained a nice balance. 

While the painting was kept simple, it 

still created a complete ‘story’ for the 

image. 

Tony Nicholls 

Tony’s subject was the Tornado in 

a desert colour scheme, with the 

aircraft’s huge tailplane dominating 

the foreground. 

Neil Adcock 

Neil produced an excellent piece of 

artwork with a pencil drawing of the 

desert-scheme Tornado. The viewpoint 

being close to the nose, forced the 

rendering of the tailfin to be relatively 

small and whilst this was captured ‘as 

seen’, the size of the fin appeared very 

small in comparison with the nose. 

Peter Lane 

Peter also chose the desert Tornado as 

the subject matter for his watercolour 

painting. Portraying the aircraft out in 

the open air, the ‘desert pink’ of the 

aircraft contrasted nicely with the blue 

sky, the red wheel covers and green of 

the grass. 

Steve Mazurek 

Steve also used watercolours to paint 

the Tornado, and demonstrated a 

nicely observed study of the aircraft as 

well as the surrounding hangar walls. He 

produced a nice combination of wellselected 

and balanced colours. Steve 

maintained the transparency of his 

washes, and this resulted in an effective 

and commendable piece of work. 

Phil Hadley AGAvA / Patrick Fleming 


Neil Adcock 

Tony Nicholls 

Phil Hadley 

Paul Millet 

Peter Lane 

Nigel Morris 

Steve Mazurek 

Grahame Witts 

Andrea Goodburn 

Tony used various media, including 

coloured pencils as well as some biro 

as well. The portrayal of the cockpits 

worked well with highlights, creating 

a nice contrast with the hangar doors 

in the background leading to a nice 

counterpoint. 

Bob Spendlove 


SOUTH EAST REGION MEETING 

Brooklands Museum 

Saturday September 3rd 

For the first time in several years, the 

South East Region held a sketching 

day at Brooklands, a Surrey museum 

with an incredibly diverse collection of 

transport including commercial aircraft, 

cars and even a bus museum! 

We arrived to the growling of cars at 

nearby Mercedes-Benz World, the 

chatter of workers refurbishing a Vickers 

Viking, and the bright landing lights of 

the most imposing object on display: the 

magnificent Concorde G-BBDG. 

The weather was pleasant at first, 

convincing several of us to work outside, 

but turned dark and rainy for part of 

the early afternoon, leading to some 

challenging lighting changes and an 

early lunch break! Luckily, it cleared up 

later and we were able to keep working 

outdoors. At the end of the day, the crit 

took place in a hangar containing a 

Harrier which flew to New York in 1969 

from the short-lived ‘RAF St Pancras’, as 

well as a Vickers Vimy which, in 2005, recreated 

the transatlantic flight of Alcock 

and Brown. 

The most popular subject was a Vickers 

Viking, which was sketched and painted 

by Richard Wheatland, Jeremy Linton 

and Jack Froelich. 

Richard worked in gouache on mixed 

media paper, and effectively captured 

the pre-rain lighting, with striking bright 

green grass and dark trees which 

brought out the highlights on the 

aluminium aircraft. Unfortunately, the 

rain prevented his piece from being 

fully finished. Jeremy used an abstract 

style, combining pen and ink with yellow 

and green watercolour, and completed 

three Viking artworks, including a 

sketch depicting workers refurbishing 

the aircraft’s tailplane (it was pointed 

out that the entire two-page span of 

the sketchbook was used nicely). Jack 

worked in watered down gouache 

on mixed media paper for one of his 

depictions of the Viking, then switched 

to chalk and coloured pencil for the 

other (this time depicting the rear of 

the aircraft), commenting that it felt 

like being in a factory because of the 

maintenance work under way nearby. 

the front of the aircraft. Other artists 

recommended using bigger paper in 

future to capture the entire wingspan. 

Michael Essam elected to sketch in the 

challenging environment of the Bellman 

hangar, which is semi-notorious for its 

lack of lighting! However, he managed 

to paint, using watercolours and pencils, 

the Wellington bomber which ditched in 

Lock Ness in 1940. He pointed out that 

the roof of the hangar was portrayed 

slightly inaccurately. He also decided to 

paint a non-aviation subject, completing 

a watercolour of the racetrack banking, 

which very effectively provided the 

impression of detailed vegetation. 

Brian Miller and Andrew Latham decided 

to take on a more unusual subject for 

the Guild – buses! 

Brian chose a pre-war London double 

decker, and used acrylics on acrylic 

paper. It was mentioned during the crit 

that his perspective was very good. 

He was especially interested in the bus 

because of its headlights, one of which 

was amber and the other white, possibly 

due to London’s fog. Andrew began the 

day sketching a Vickers Vanguard using 

red paper, but then decided to switch 

to blue. However, this was spoiled by 

the rain, so he ended up sketching a 

bus (indoors!) in water soluble coloured 

pencil on red paper, mentioning that he 

would have added watercolour if there 

had been more time. 

Overall, it was a great sketching day, 

not least because of the terrific museum 

we were in. Thank you to everyone who 

came along, and to the Brooklands staff 

for always being welcoming – hopefully 

we’ll return again soon! 

Nick Harder Friend 

Andrew Latham 

Jeremy Linton 

Jeremy Linton 

John Jones 

Michael Essam 

Nick Harder 

Jack Froelich 

Richard Wheatland 

Michael Essam 

Another popular subject was (as 

always) the Concorde; John Jones and 

I attempted similar perspectives, with 

John’s slightly more side-on. John worked 

in pencil and produced a successful 

three-quarter view of the airliner; it was 

mentioned in the crit that more shadow 

would have completed the sketch. I 

used acrylics on grey paper, trying to 

capture an imposing perspective of 

Jeremy Linton 

Richard Wheatland 


EAST ANGLIAN REGION MEETING 

GUILD OF AVIATION ARTISTS 

HQ NEWS... HQ NEWS... 

IWM Duxford 

Saturday August 13th 

We all arrived in the car park for 

our second trip to IWM Duxford. The 

morning queues were very long as 

usual, but being a group we had a 

fairly easy route through.. 

After the usual coffee, tea and banter 

we all went on our artistic ways. Here is 

a run down of what was produced on 

the day: 

Andrew Latham captured the fox moth 

with pastel pencil on green paper, it 

had just the right amount of highlight 

touches, a really nice piece of work. 

Guild Exhibition plan 

for 2023 

The Guild intends to stage an exhibition 

at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford in 

June 2023. This will be our first physical 

exhibition since 2019 and is an exciting 

new project. 

The exhibition will be held in the Victor 

conservation space inside the Airspace 

building and will be a three-day 

event, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. 

The weekend dates will coincide with 

Duxford’s Summer Airshow and will be 

Friday 23rd, Saturday 24th and Sunday 

25th of June 2023. 

Set up and hanging will be on the Thursday 

and artists’ works are to be delivered to 

Duxford on that day. 

The private view and official opening with 

invited guests will be on the Friday with 

the exhibition opening to Duxford visitors 

thereafter. 

Over the weekend, up to 50,000 people 

attend the Airshow so ‘public’ footfall to 

our exhibition is expected to be very high. 

Dismantling will be on the Monday. 

Selection will be by digital image to which 

we are now familiar. 

There are many details to be worked out 

but there is plenty of time to get things 

organised. Submission is expected to be 

in April 2023 and will be online. 

More information will be released in due 

course, but for now, please put the dates 

in the diary and get painting! 

Works accepted in this year’s Virtual 

Exhibition will still be elegible for the 

Duxford 2023 Exhibition. 

Thank you again for your continued 

patience and understanding. 


Chairman 

December 2022 

Rod Kirkby did three pieces of work, 

B17, DH Dove and Dakota in pastel in his 

usual loose quick sketch style. 

Paul Bennell joined us at Duxford from 

the South East Region for the first time, 

and he captured the flight line and 

tower in three segments in watercolour. 

Mike Chapman painted the RE 5 in flight 

over an aerodrome background. A very 

nice imaginative picture considering the 

light in the Aerospace hanger was very dull. 

Allen Churchyard sketched a montage 

of a C130, Phantom and F-15 hanging 

from the ceiling in the American 

museum. An important point was made 

in the crit; how difficult it is to achieve the 

perspective of aircraft in a museum. 

Moira McQuiggan 

Photos:www.iwm.org.uk 

Chris Impey chose for his subject the 

Dakota in watercolour (unfinished). 

David Fosh continued working in his very 

fine pastels conveying the Spitfire in a 

very well controlled piece of fine work. 

Moira McQuiggan was outside painting 

a pleasant scene adding in a selection 

of human figures. 

Phil Jackson. Having a couple of hours 

only to find a subject to draw, I chose 

the Harrier which was hanging up in 

the Aerospace hangar. It was a hurried 

effort but I felt that some tonal values 

were acheived. 

My thanks to Andrew Latham for sharing 

the critique with me and to all that 

attended. I am sure everybody enjoyed 

the day, sunshine and all, and I hope to 

see you all on the next outing. 

Phil Jackson GAvA 

East Anglian Region Organiser 

Allen Churchyard 

Phil Jackson 

Rod Kirkby 

David Fosh 

Membership Subscriptions for 2023 

Membership Renewal 

Seasons Greetings one and all! 

It being that time of year again may I take the liberty of reminding everyone that Membership Subscriptions are 

due by 31st December 2022. Many thanks to those who have already responded! 

Membership rates are unchanged and are detailed below: 

Full Members 

Associates 

Friends 

£70 per annum 



You will have already been sent a renewal form either by email or post. 

Most people are now using the Guild Shop on-line to renew and can be accessed via the following link. 

https://guild-of-aviation-artists.square.site/membership-renewal 

You may have changed address or email during the year, please make sure that you let us know. 

Please renew promptly as this saves time, effort and cost to the Guild in having to send reminders. 

Your new Membership card will be sent to you early in January. Do not delay – please act now! 

Many thanks and best wishes for the New Year! 

Ken Farmer AGAvA, Membership Secretary 

Paul Bennell 

Data Protection: Your details will be held by the Guild on a computer database. This is used solely for the purpose of sending out information 

on Guild matters by authorised members and such information will not be disclosed to any third party. 

28 36 GUILD GUILD OF AVIATION OF AVIATION ARTISTS ARTISTS QUARTERLY NEWS NEWS AUTUMN AUTUMN 2022 2022 GUILD OF AVIATION ARTISTS QUARTERLY NEWS AUTUMN 2022 29


HQ NEWS... HQ NEWS... 

Aviation Artists Society Magazines 

Other aviation artists’ societies 

issue quarterly magazines 

Thanks to Peter Nield for the latest MAVAS 

magazine No.114. The cover by Chris Stone 

shows a Wapiti over Waziristan in the North 

West Frontier entitled “Looking for Trouble”. 

The website details of AERO BRUSH, the journal 

of the American Society of Aviation Artists, 

AERIAL VIEWS, the Canadian Aerospace 

Artists Association and CROSS & COCKADE 

are also shown. It is interesting to see 

what our fellow aviation artist societies 

are getting up to. 

MAVAS 114 features by our own 

Charles J Thompson and also an 

interesting article by Sam Markland on 

scratch building models. 

www.mavas.co.uk 

www.asaa-avart.org 

www.aviationartists.ca 

www.crossandcockade.com 

CAPTION COMPETITION AUTUMN 2022 


YOUR REGIONAL ORGANISERS 

East Anglian Region 

Phil Jackson GAvA 

07484 302051 

philjacksonart@btinternet.com 

Midland Region 

Phil Hadley AGAvA 

01743 860404 

07876 222485 

midlandregion@gava.org.uk 

Northern Region 


01309 673606 

paul@griffon.uk.com 

South East Region 

Richard Wheatland GAvA 

01293 885430 

richardwheatland@aol.com 

evenings - weekdays 

(7.00 to 9.00pm) and weekends 

West Region 

Rob Hames GAvA 

07976 102955 

rahames@hotmail.com 


GENERAL COMMITTEE 

Andrew Latham GAvA Chairman 

07711 652152 

chair@gava.org.uk 

Chris French FGAvA Vice Chairman 

01376 551869 

Richard Thorne AGAvA Secretary 

secretary@gava.org.uk 

Janet Latham VP Hon Treasurer 

treasurer@gava.org.uk 

07778 068563 

Stephen Chard GAvA Annual Co-ordinator 

07722 845412 

Ken Farmer GAvA Membership 

01825 722061 

membership@gava.org.uk 

Simon Mumford GAvA Website Co-ordinator 

01372 844586 

Martin Perman GAvA Administrator, 

Commissions and Sales 

can be reached via Guild phone number: 

0333 130 2223 

and admin@gava.org.uk 



Rob Hames GAvA 


Anita Hole Bookkeeper accounts@gava.org.uk 

NEXT QUARTERLY NEWS DATE FOR 2023 

Issue Winter/New Year 2023 Copy to Editors early Jan 2023 

Est Dispatch Jan / early Feb 2023 

Big Mac sir...?... 


“I think the Airfix replacement parts department might 

have got the scale wrong.” 

John Hunter GAvA 

“Fred was a little self-conscious of his new ‘Build your 

own life-sized Spitfire’ partwork subscription - although 

now that issue 9,371 (the prop spinner) had arrived, he 

felt it was beginning to look quite bonny...” 

Opinions expressed in this newsletter are not 

necessarily those of the editors, the Guild or its 

officers or committee. No article may be copied 

or reprinted in any form without the permission of 

the editors. 

Editors: Robert Calow/David Calow 

75 Severn Road, Oadby, 

Leicester, LE2 4FW 

07825 537649 (Robert) 

07825 537647 (David) 

PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW EMAIL ADDRESSES! 

robert@calowcreative.co.uk 

david@calowcreative.co.uk 

Please Note that the email 

address used for all QN 

correspondence is: 

robert@calowcreative.co.uk 

PLEASE NOTE THE NEW GUILD ADDRESS 

Guild of Aviation Artists 

Studio 100 

161 High Street 

Ruislip HA4 8JY 

Tel: 0333 1302 223 

Email: admin@gava.org.uk 



The vibrant aviation art of Drew Harrison 

Drew Harrison is a professional artist based 

in Adelaide, South Australia and is known for 

his vibrant colours. His acrylic work covers 

aviation, military, landscapes and abstracts. 

His website gives a background to his art; 

Early ventures in the field of illustration included 

publications such as children’s books but an 

interest in flight has led to a successful period 

of detailed Aviation painting and regular 

prizes in the Royal Australian Air Force Heritage 

Awards. These works have since become part 

of the Service’s national collection. 

A current foray into Military Art, with projects 

including the Sands of Gallipoli collection, 

represents Drew’s varied experience across 

multiple artistic techniques. He has been able 

to draw influence from a pedigree of artists 

within this specialised area. However, there 

remains a fresh and unique atmosphere within 

each painting as well as his meticulous eye for 

historical detail and accuracy. 

Drew has exhibited in group exhibitions 

and his paintings are represented in private 

collections. He is also an experienced art tutor 

who has gained a reputation for effectively 

communicating and demonstrating practical 

art knowledge. 

Drew Harrison © Copyright 2022 


THE BACK PAGE 

All images copyright Drew Harrison. www.drewharrison-art.com 

32 GUILD OF AVIATION ARTISTS QUARTERLY NEWS AUTUMN 2022

QN AUTUMN 22 LR

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