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Aviation
art print by renowned aviation artist Robert
Taylor, superb aviation art prints of the United States Air force by
Robert Taylor shown in
aviation art prints available from Cranston Fine Arts.
The name Robert Taylor has been
synonymous with aviation art over a quarter of a century. His paintings of
aircraft, more than those of any other artist, have helped popularise a
genre which at the start of this remarkable artist's career had little
recognition in the world of fine art. When he burst upon the scene in the
mid-1970s his vibrant, expansive approach to the subject was a revelation.
His paintings immediately caught the imagination of enthusiasts and
collectors alike . He became an instant success. As a boy, Robert
seemed always to have a pencil in his hand. Aware of his natural gift from
an early age, he never considered a career beyond art, and with unwavering
focus, set out to achieve his goal. Leaving school at fifteen, he has
never worked outside the world of art. After two years at the Bath School
of Art he landed a job as an apprentice picture framer with an art gallery
in Bath, the city where Robert has lived and worked all his life. Already
competent with water-colours the young apprentice took every opportunity
to study the works of other artists and, after trying his hand at oils,
quickly determined he could paint to the same standard as much of the art
it was his job to frame.
Soon the gallery was selling his
paintings, and the owner, recognising Robert's talent, promoted him to the
busy picture-restoring department. Here, he repaired and restored all
manner of paintings and drawings, the expertise he developed becoming the
foundation of his career as a professional artist. Picture restoration is
an exacting skill, requiring the ability to emulate the techniques of
other painters so as to render the damaged area of the work undetectable.
After a decade of diligent application, Robert became one of the most
capable picture restorers outside London. Today he attributes his
versatility to the years he spent painstakingly working on the paintings
of others artists.
After fifteen years at the gallery, by
chance he was introduced to Pat Barnard, whose military publishing
business happened also to be located in the city of Bath. When offered the
chance to become a full-time painter, Robert leapt at the opportunity.
Within a few months of becoming a professional artist, he saw his first
works in print. The Military Gallery has published every print reproduced
from Robert's paintings ever since. Robert's early career was
devoted to maritime paintings, and he achieved early success with his
prints of naval subjects, one of his admirers being Lord Louis Mountbatten.
He exhibited successfully at the Royal Society of Marine Artists in London
and soon his popularity attracted the attention of the media. Following a
major feature on his work in a leading national daily newspaper he was
invited to appear in a BBC Television programme. This led to a string of
commissions for the Fleet Air Arm Museum who, understandably, wanted
aircraft in their maritime paintings. It was the start of Robert's career
as an aviation artist.
Fascinated since childhood by the big,
powerful machines that man has invented, switching from one type of
'hardware' to another has never troubled him. Being an artist of the 'old
school', Robert tackled the subject of painting aircraft with the same
gusto as with his large, action-packed maritime pictures - big
compositions supported by powerful and dramatic skies, painted on large
canvases. It was a formula new to the aviation art genre, at the time not
used to such sweeping canvases, but one that came naturally to an artist
whose approach appeared to have origins in an earlier classical period.
Robert's aviation paintings are
instantly recognisable. He somehow manages to convey all the technical
detail of aviation in a traditional and painterly style, reminiscent of
the Old Masters. With uncanny ability, he is able to recreate scenes from
the past with a carefully rehearsed realism that few other artists ever
manage to achieve. This is partly due to his prodigious research but also
his attention to detail: Not for him shiny new factory-fresh aircraft
looking like museum specimens. His trade mark, flying machines that are
battle-scarred, worse for wear, with dings down the fuselage, chips and
dents along the leading edges of wings, oil stains trailing from engine
cowlings, paintwork faded with dust and grime; his planes are real!
Robert's aviation works have drawn
crowds in the international arena since the early 1980s. He has exhibited
throughout the US and Canada, Australia, Japan and in Europe. His one-man
exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in
Washington DC was hailed as the most popular art exhibition ever held
there. His paintings hang in many of the world's great aviation museums,
adorn boardrooms, offices and homes, and his limited edition prints are
avidly collected all around the world. A family man with strong
Christian values, Robert devotes most of what little spare time he has to
his home life. Married to Mary for thirty five years, they have five
children, all now grown up. Neither fame nor fortune has turned his head.
He is the same easy-going, gentle character he was when setting out on his
painting career all those years ago, but now with a confidence that comes
with the knowledge that he has mastered his profess |
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Mission Beyond Darkness by Robert Taylor
Following the attack against Admiral Ozawas Japanese carrier fleet on June 20, 1944, Admiral Mitscher defies all rules of naval engagement: In total darkness, with the ever-present danger of enemy submarines, he orders every ship in his Task Force 58 to switch on lights to guide over 100 returning carrier-borne aircraft, all desperately low on fuel. Amid the confusion, unable to get a landing slot aboard the USS Lexington, and now out of fuel, a pilot and his gunner scramble from their ditched SB2B Curtiss Helldiver, as a Fletcher class destroyer manoeuvres to make the pick up.
Signed limited edition of 750 prints. Image size 34 inches x 23 inches (86cm x 58cm). Price £200.00 Signed by Commander Alex Vraciu USN, Captain Donald Gordon USN, Lieutenant Ralph Yaussi USNR and Air Gunner James Curry.
Limited edition of 50 artist proofs. Image size 34 inches x 23 inches (86cm x 58cm). Price £325.00 Signed by Commander Alex Vraciu USN, Captain Donald Gordon USN, Lieutenant Ralph Yaussi USNR and Air Gunner James Curry.
ITEM CODE DHM2058
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| Bringing the Peacemaker Home by Robert Taylor
By 1944 the USAAF were
dispatching bombers deep
into Germany on a grand scale. In June alone no fewer than 28,800 aircraft
were dispatched into hostile air space, the scale of operations such that
enabled hitting a dozen or more different targets on a single day.
Even with the benefit of long-range fighter escort, the bomber
formations had to run the gauntlet of the Luftwaffe's fighter defenses as
they approached and departed the target area. With plenty of practice
during the previous 12 months, the German fighter pilots had developed
highly successful techniques of attack against the American four-engined
bombers, and whenever they engaged in numbers, USAAF losses were heavy -
37 bombers failed to return from raids against synthetic oil plants and
aircraft factories at Leipzig on June 29.
On July 20 it was the turn of the 91st Bomb Group to attack an airfield
near Leipzig, suspected of harboring the new menace - the Luftwaffe's
revolutionary Messerschmitt Me262 jet. As the formation spread out for the
bomb run, the 401st squadron took the low position - the most vulnerable
to fighter attack.
Just as the crew of The Peacemaker steadied the ship to sight the
target, the squadron was set upon by Focke-Wulf 190s. The formation leader
was set on fire wingtip to wingtip, almost colliding with Peacemaker as
the stricken aircraft slid into the void below. At that moment, cannon
shells ripped into Peacemaker as a Fw190 flashed past within 200 feet, its
guns blazing. Hit in the wing and tail, the bucking B-17 began to slip
below the rest of the formation. She was a long way from home.
Robert Taylor's dramatic portrayal of events picks up the story as the
injured bird limps towards the sanctuary of the English coast. That she
has got this far is a miracle, due in no small part to the close
attentions of escorting P-51B Mustangs of the 361st Fighter Group.
To keep her flying, the crew are jettisoning everything that can be
safely bundled out of the aircraft. The front hatch is open and bombardier
Marion Havelaar has reluctantly despatched his 20lb bomb sight to the
ocean below - for him, an act of total sacrilege. The Peacemaker made it
back to Bassingbourne that day; eight others did not. |
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Mission Beyond Darkness by Robert Taylor
After a three day sea search for Admiral
Ozawa's carrier fleet it was 3.30pm on June 20, 1944, when a spotter plane
reported the enemy position to Admiral Mitscher's Task Force 58. Mitscher
knew the risks of despatching a large force on such a long-range mission
so late in the day, but he also knew his task was to get the carriers. By
4.30pm over 200 fighters, dive-bombers, and torpedo strike planes were in
the air and heading for the target.
In the short but intense battle that followed late in that day, the
Japanese carrier Hiyo was sunk, four more Japanese carriers were damaged,
two oilers sunk, the battleship Haruna hit, and some 40 enemy aircraft
reported destroyed. Fierce, and seemingly successful though the encounter
was, for most of the American aircrews the worst part of the mission was
yet to come. As 209 aircraft turned and headed east into the growing dark,
most of the pilots knew they had barely enough fuel to get back on board
their carriers, some 270 miles distant. Many of the aircraft had received
battle damage, and some of the crews were wounded.
It was 8pm and pitch dark as the first of the returning aircraft neared
the carriers. Admiral Mitscher knew that without some form of guidance it
was going to be all but impossible to recover his aircraft and, ignoring
the submarine threat, boldly ordered the fleet to turn on lights. But the
arriving Helldiver and Avenger pilots were all but out of fuel, and in the
confusion of trying to pick out a carrier, find a landing slot, compounded
by a number of deck crashes, some 70 planes went into the water that
night. For Mitscher's aircrews, the long return to TF-58 went into history
as the 'mission beyond darkness'
In recreating the awesome scene, Robert Taylor has painted a
masterpiece of naval aviation warfare in the Pacific. In the foreground
the SB2C Helldiver of Lieutenant Ralph Yaussi, its tanks dry, has ditched
near the carrier USS Lexington. As Yaussi and his gunner James Curry
clamber out of the sinking aircraft, the Fletcher class destroyer USS
Anthony, her 24 inch searchlight ablaze, is moving in to make the pick-up.
The chaos and confusion of that infamous night during the Battle of the
Philippine Sea, springs back to life in this stunning painting. With
prints signed by four aircrew who survived Admiral Mitscher's historic
operation, including Yaussi and Curry, Robert Taylor's Mission Beyond
Darkness will become one of the great collector's prints from the era. |
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